Technologically mutated
by One Septic Markiplite
Summary: Leo and his brothers were tracking down Kraang like always, when they are hit with a mysterious shockwave. They wake to find themselves in an odd situation, larger than life , and caught up in a war that spans the galaxy. Just another day in the life of the Turtles, it seems.
1. assimilation

Smokescreen grinned as he entered the base through the groundbridge, arms swinging casually. "Relic retrieved, Decepticons beat, all in all, a good mission."

Arcee rolled her optics, and held out the relic. It was unlike everything else they'd retrieved so far. It was a small box like object, that she could just wrap her servo around, though even Agent Fowler, a slightly heavy-set man, one of the few human adults part of Team Prime, could have used as a stool. The box was a silvery grey, with green energy streaks going down the side.

"Well, what is it?" asked Arcee's human partner, Jack Darby.

The team medic, Ratchet, narrowed his optics. "I myself do not recognize it, though it seems it is of Decepticon origin."

Turning the box around, Arcee saw the small purple Decepticon insignia embossed in the metal. "Makes sense," said the femme bot. "Knock Out and his Vehicon cronies seemed intent on getting their servos on it."

"Yeah, when we got to this thing it was already dug out," said Smokescreen, indicating to the cube. "The 'Cons seemed to be waiting for us. The weird thing is, the mad doc 'thanked' us for 'doing all the work'."

"Since when have 'Cons ever made sense," said Bulkhead, the ultimate muscle of the team.

"What do you think, Optimus?" Arcee handed the Iacon relic to the Autobot leader, who took it in his servo.

"It is indeed of Decepticon origin," Optimus Prime said slowly. "I recognize it as one of the Decepticon's more deadly creations."

"Suh-weet!" Miko, Bulkhead's exuberant human partner, fist pumped. "One up on the 'Cons!"

Smokescreen snapped his fingers suddenly. "Now I know what it is, and it's not exactly 'sweet'. For you guys, at least. The 'Cons, as a backup plan during the early days of the war, just in case they decided to leave Cybertron, created what they called an Assimilator. It takes organic matter and turns it Cybertronian."

The three human kids, Raf, Jack and Miko, who had been leaning on the guardrail on the platform, backed off suddenly.

Raf's guardian, the team scout, Bumblebee, beeped and wirred, shaking his helm worriedly.

"It was on a waterfront outside New York City," said Arcee. "No humans were around, at least none we know of."

"The Assimilator did set off a flash, though," said Smokescreen. "That's the problem with this thing, it's highly unpredictable. It'll assimilate anything from a human to an entire planet."

"So our human allies could be turned into Cybertronians at any moment?" Ratchet snapped.

"Cool!" Miko, having got over her wariness, had been leaning as close as she could towards the cube. "Then I'll really be a Wrecker!"

"Despite the unpredictability of this Iacon relic," said Optimus. "I believe that our vault ought to contain whatever shockwaves it may give off."

"I'll see to it," said Arcee, gingerly taking the relic, and walking towards the vault hall.

Suddenly, the computer gave off several beeps, and Ratchet turned sharply. "Cybertronian signals!" he said in surprise. He manipulated the computer, and his optics narrowed. "Very near where Arcee and Smokescreen retrieved the relic."

"Autobot or Decepticon?" asked Raf.

"Neither," replied Ratchet. "The signals appear neutral."

"Neutral or not, this no doubt has been detected by the Decepticons," Optimus said grimly. "We must investigate. Ratchet, Bumblebee and Bulkhead, you are with me."

"Me too!" Miko said automatically.

Bulkhead held up a servo just as the Japanese girl began to run down the steps. "You are staying here, Miko," he said firmly.

"Ugh! I can't do anything fun!" Stomping her foot, Miko stalked back up the stairs, where the two boys gave her a bit of a wide berth.

"Wait, so I'm stuck here with Arcee and Wheeljack?" Smokescreen sounded protesting.

Bumblebee shrugged, beeping, and Bulkhead pat the Autobot rookie on the shoulder. "Don't do anything to provoke 'Cee while we're gone, kid," the large green Wrecker said wryly. "Jackie isn't the type who's gonna help you out."

Quickly running to his computer, Raf tapped a couple things on his keyboard. "Activating the groundbridge."

The green portal swirled to life, and Ratchet, Bulkhead and Bumblebee stood by, waiting for Optimus' order.

"Transform and roll out," the Autobot leader commanded, and soon, a blue and red semi truck, a yellow and black Urbana, a large green off road truck, and a red and white ambulance disappeared into the groundbridge.

Megatron was angry. Very angry. "A mere two Autobots, against a fleet of Vehicons at your command, and they still managed to get a hold of the relic?"

The Decepticon medic, Knock Out, stepped back, cringing. "A thousand apologies, Lord Megatron," he said. "But-"

"I want none of your excuses, Knock Out!" Megatron turned away, growling. "This was your chance to redeem yourself from that one incident with the Phase Shifter. I do not give chances freely."

Knock Out grimaced slightly, partly because of the painful memory where that Pit damned Autobot scout had ruined his finish, and partly because he was wondering exactly what punishment would be dealt upon his helm. He wondered vaguely what would be worse, a beating, where he should stay online, but his entire chassis would hurt for days, and even worse, his finish would almost be beyond repair, or an offlining.

He was beginning to lean more on the beating part as the worse fate, when the Decepticon warlord suddenly turned, and he backed off quickly. But Megatron seemed to be contemplating something.

"However, it is unlikely the Autobots will put any risk to their organic pets by using the relic." He walked forward, towards his communications officer, who was manipulating the ship computer with deftness. "I trust, Soundwave, that you will work all the harder to locate another Iacon relic."

The silent comm officer turned, and a few blips appeared on his mask screen.

"Cybertronian signals?" Megatron said in surprise. "Neutrals… Well, perhaps we can change that into our favor. Dreadwing," he commd his second-in-command. "Meet me on the bridge."

The warlord chuckled darkly. "Let us greet our fellow Cybertronians…"

"Dudes, this is sooo rad!" Mikey exclaimed, running his hands over his chest.

Donnie examined his arm curiously. "I don't even recognize this type of metal alloy. It's not like the Kraang metal, it's something else, almost a techno organic matter, just… without the organic. It feels almost alive and natural, but it's such a marvel of technology."

"Well, if you're so fascinated by it, why don't you just start dissecting yourself, Donnie?" Raph snapped irritably, leaning against a building, which was fortunately abandoned, as were most of the buildings and warehouses around this particular waterfront.

Leo frowned slightly, more out of a concentration habit than annoyance. Instinctively, he reached behind his back, and was satisfied to draw two familiar katanas, just… larger. It was an uncanny feeling, though, as metal scraped metal, a slight shudder going down his back. It was a sort of ticklish feeling.

"Well, at least we still have our weapons."

Leonardo had had his fair share of being knocked unconscious, either by some unsavory characters, or more often by Raphael. But Leo had always had a bit of an idea what he was going to wake up to. A dark room, or the concerned faces of his brothers and Sensei.

The word 'reboot' wasn't the first thing that came to mind.

Of course, when he had found out that he and his brothers were now some sort of giant robots, a slight panic ensued. From Mikey most of all. But after Leo had forced himself, and his brothers, to calm down Mikey had started accepting this new mutation with enthusiasm.

Mikey was a bright orange, with black stripes, lined with bright blue, and his sky blue eyes glowed unnaturally.

Raph was a bright red, with darker green streaks, and bright green eyes to match them.

Donnie was a deep purple, and lavender and dull green streaks could be seen. His eyes were red. Or almost red. They were still the familiar, constantly curious eyes that Leo was used to, despite the fact that, for some reason, none of them had whites, but the red deeply bothered him for some reason.

Leo himself was, of course, blue. Rather than streaks, though, he seemed to have distinct black and white stripes. His eyes were a slight darker blue than Mikey's.

Both Mikey and Leo seemed to have something akin to small wings attached to their backs, and all of them had Master Splinter's clan symbol in silver on their chests.

"Do you have any idea what could have caused this, Donnie?" said Leo, carefully replacing one of his katanas.

Donnie was examining his new bo staff, which seemed to be made of a well worn metal. "None, at the moment." He tapped a finger on his chin. "I remember we were tracking the Kraang towards the waterfront, when we heard laser fire. You remember, right?"

"Yeah," Raph said in a 'well, duh' voice, giving his sai, who's blades had a glowing blue energy on the edges, a few experimental whirls. "A lot of it."

"And just when we were about to investigate, I thought I heard something that sounded like an energy surge before I lost consciousness." Donnie frowned slightly, looking down at his body.

"So what, the Kraang have a new experiment that involves mutating people into technology?" said Leo.

"I don't know," Donnie said hesitantly.

Raph threw his hands in the air. "Call the press! Donatello actually doesn't know something!"

"Zip it, Raph," the purple turtle-turned-robot said irritably. "Leo's theory doesn't exactly explain the laser fire."

"How are we gonna explain this to Master Splinter?" Leo said worriedly.

"How are we even gonna fit into the lair?" said Raph.

"Guys, I just realized something!" They all turned to their younger brother, who was holding his robot-ized nunchucks, which looked something akin to blue light saber 'chucks. "Since we're robots, does this mean we have to eat oil? I mean, it's never seemed very appetizing to me, but who knows what possibilities open up now that we're robots! I wonder if you can get an oil pizza…"

Before any of them could give a snappy reply, a noise that sounded like something giving a mighty power up sounded, and they were all suddenly bathed in an electric green light as what looked like an enormous green portal appeared. The four of them automatically fell into defensive positions. Four robots came through the portal.

It was hard to tell who was more surprised. The other four robots consisted of a very large in size green one, who towered over all but Donnie, who was probably about as tall as the green bot, if a lot smaller in size. The smallest bot was about as big and tall as Mikey, only bright yellow, with black stripes. Leo was only a little shorter than the third bot, who was white, with emergency red symbols on his arms. The tallest bot towered over everybody, and he seemed to be mainly red and blue.

What was most noticeable was that all of them had blue eyes.

"My name is Optimus Prime," said the tallest bot, in a deep voice, slightly monotone, as the portal extinguished. "The leader of the Autobots."

He paused as if waiting for a reaction.

"Autobots?" said Leo, gripping his katana. "What's that? Yet another alien robot species?"

The red and white bot scoffed. "Very hypocritical of you to be using the human word 'alien' as a derogatory term against us, when you yourself are the same species as us."

"Dudes, am I the only one who thinks that this peppermint robot dude's voice is kind of familial?" whispered Mikey.

"That's 'familiar', and yes, you're right," said Donnie, frowning slightly. "In fact, he sounds a lot like…"

The yellow and black bot suddenly threw a hand in the air, letting out a burble of beeps and clicks, that Leo instinctively thought he ought to understand, but didn't.

"How can we not know-?" Donnie snorted slightly. "We haven't even heard of this particular type of giant alien robots in general since only five minutes ago, let alone Autobots."

A small wondering of why Donnie understood the small yellow bot was pushed in the back of Leo's mind.

"I see that you are very untrusting at the present time," said the bot called Optimus Prime.

"Well, giant robots waving guns in our faces tend to do that," Raph said sarcastically. The yellow bot seemed to have a double barreled laser gun attached to each arm, the green one had an entire cannon in place of one of his hands, while Optimus Prime had what looked like enormous sniper laser guns in place of both hands.

Optimus Prime turned towards the green bot and the yellow and black bot. "Lower your weapons," he commanded, his guns suddenly seeming to retract into his arms, allowing two black hands to appear.

The bots obeyed. Donnie stepped forward slightly. "Wow," was all he said.

Optimus Prime approached slowly, and the four turtles turned robot raised their weapons slightly. "I mean you no harm," he said slowly. "Am I wrong to say that you were human only moments ago, until, for unexplained reasons, you have become what you are now?"

"Uh, yeah!" Mikey blurted out. "Dude, that's just wrong on so many levels! We were turtles before we became frigging alien robots!"

"Mikey!" Leo hissed.

"Yes, we used to be organic," Donnie put in.

"Guys, they're alien robots that jumped out of a very alien looking portal, which I gotta say reminds me of a certain incident involving a monster made out of rock and lava, waving guns at us!" Raph hissed. "Why are we even talking to them?"

Leo narrowed his eyes up at the tall bot. Something about this bot reminded him a lot of Master Splinter, which sort of surprised him. But that didn't make him trustworthy. But instinct was telling him that this robot could be trusted. Somehow. But then, instinct hadn't been very nice to him with Karai… No, he was not going to think about that.

"Raphael," Leo hissed back. "We may have no choice but to trust them."

"Like we trusted Karai?"

Leo glared slightly, before pushing his emotions aside. "Look, I feel that they can really help with what's happened to us."

Optimus watched as the blue mech discussed in whispers with the red mech. He still seemed to keep one optic on Optimus however, senses ever alert.

What had surprised Optimus the most was the age of the four mechs. They looked possibly younger than Bumblebee and Smokescreen, and those two young mechs were the last flickers of the latest Cybertronian generation. Of course, when the purple mech had confirmed that they had indeed been organic, it was a bit clearer to Optimus. And yet, no human youngling Optimus had heard of knew how to deal with weapons the way these four did now. It could have been battle mode instinct, but the sureness in the way they held the weapons showed years of training.

Of course, there were the weapons themselves. Wheeljack preferred katanas, like the blue mech, but that was preference. The Wrecker could have had a long range weapon. The energon blades the red mech held were unlike any Optimus had seen, and what was more, they were not built in, like Arcee's. The staff that the purple mech held was not unlike an electro staff, only minus the electro. Again, that was a matter of preference. And the exuberant orange mech… his weapons were unlike any Optimus had seen before.

These mechs, as organics, were practiced in these weapons.

"Optimus, are you really willing to involve more humans in this?" Ratchet moved next to the Autobot leader.

"If we do not, they may not have a chance to go back to their lives, old friend," Optimus replied. He cast a glance at the chestplates of the four mechs. Each of them had an odd silver insignia in place of a faction insignia. "And I do not think that these were any ordinary humans."

Finally, the conversation seemed to draw to a close, and the blue mech stepped forward. He seemed to be the leader in the group, and his katana was held limply at his side. "You will be able to help us?" he asked slowly.

"To the best of our ability," said Optimus.

The blue mech looked at the ground for a moment, then towards his companions. Then, back up at Optimus. "Ok…" He placed the katana behind his back.

Suddenly, a groundbridge could be heard powering up behind the four mechs, and Dreadwing, with a hoard of Vehicons, stepped out of the portal.

Seeing the Autobots, Dreadwing said, "Do not let the Autobots deceive you, friends! Join us, the Decepticons, under the great rule of Lord Megatron."

"Dreadwing," Bulkhead growled, his servo transforming into his long range weapon.

A Vehicon fired, and the young purple mech deflected the shot with his staff. He looked very surprised, as if not having expected that to work.

"Rafael!" Ratchet commd. "We need a groundbridge."

The red mech gave the medic an odd look. "What the heck-?" He cut off as a shot from an approaching Vehicon hit him in the shoulder. Falling back slightly, he growled, and plunged forward, quickly taking down his offender with his energon knives.

Optimus heard Bumblebee and Bulkhead exchanging gunfire with the Vehicons, and all the while Dreadwing approached slowly, taking out his machine gun.

"That doesn't look good," the orange mech commented.

Just then, a groundbridge powered up, and Optimus ran towards it. "Autobots, fall back!"

"Autobots, fall back!"

Leo turned after running after Raph, who had recklessly plunged amongst the seemingly faceless dark purple robots, deflecting a bit of fire with his katanas. He saw Optimus Prime running towards a green portal, the three other bots following.

He hesitated a moment, before grabbing Raph's arm. "C'mon!" he shouted. "Towards the portal!"

Shaking his brother away, Raph, for once, obeyed without question. Mikey was already ahead, Donnie and Leo deflecting some last few laser fire, before turning, and following.

Just before he entered the portal, Leo glanced back. The enormous blue and gold robot, who seemed to have wings like those of a jet, was staring after them with narrowed red eyes.

Red eyes.

Before Leo could even shudder, the New York City night disappeared.

Dreadwing made no attempt to run after the neutrals and the Autobots. In fact, as soon as all disappeared into the groundbridge, the Decepticon SIC was contemplating.

Most neutrals had blue optics or sometimes even green or gold. There was that one mech, though… the purple one. He had none of these. He had deflected the Vehicons' fire with a skill and ease Dreadwing had never seen before.

And he had the closest thing to red optics Dreadwing had ever seen in a neutral.

Neutrals were hard to convert into Decepticons. Even they seemed to appreciate the morals of the Autobots over those of the Decepticons. But red optics… red optics had an odd effect on some Cybertronians. Even those golden eyed neutrals, who's optics were the color of that bordering on red, seemed to have more Decepticon qualities than most.

Now if Dreadwing could just find him…

Standing behind the abandoned buildings, half a dozen blue and silver robots watched.

"Kraang," said a blue one. "The ones who are called 'the turtles' who are no longer the turtles because of the device that Kraang discovered that was stolen from Kraang by the unknown techno species have entered the portal that has appeared in this place of the unknown techno species who have stolen the device Kraang discovered from Kraang with the unknown techno species and are no longer in this place."

"Yes, Kraang," agreed a silver one. "The unknown techno species must posses valuable technology. The unknown techno species are now in alliance with ones called 'the turtles' who are no longer the turtles because of the device that Kraang discovered that was stolen from Kraang by the unknown techno species. The ones who are no longer the turtles have posed a danger to what Kraang has been doing and will now make what is known as 'trouble' for Kraang with the unknown techno species."

"The unknown techno species must be known as the unknown alien species that are destroyed," said another Kraang-droid. "Kraang must make the unknown techno species the known techno species for Kraang if Kraang is to accomplish this."

"Agreed, Kraang."

The treacherous grounded Decepticon seeker watched the Autobots with their new recruits with interest. They were like no Cybertronian he had seen before. Of course, when Dreadwing had come through a groundbridge - that cursed mech who now possessed his former position - the seeker had sunk as much into the shadows as possible, as if he wasn't already.

But he couldn't bring himself to activate his own groundbridge yet. These young Cybertronians did little fighting, but in what little defense they showed, it was very entrancing to watch.

He had seen the way these mechs had hesitated when Optimus Prime had offered them a place amongst the Autobots, though he could hear little else afterwards. Perhaps he would finally gain some allies.

A black femme bot, silver and gold streaks gleaming in the moon light, watched the robots fight with a rapt concentration. As soon as Leonardo entered the green portal after his new friends, the portal disappeared.

She inclined her head, golden optics narrowing, a smirk coming on her faceplates.

'Well, Leo, you and your brothers introduce me to something new everyday…'


	2. Interragation

**YOU ASKED, AND I AM DELIVERING. THE REVISED SECOND CHAPTER OF THIS STORY, WITHOUT THE REPITITIONS. SORRY FOR THAT SCREW-UP, GUYS. **

**~LEOFAN221 **

**Chapter Two: Interrogation**

Arcee waited next to the platform as Raf activated the groundbridge. She was a little bit annoyed that Optimus had gone to meet the new Cybertronians without her, but on the bright side the irritated vibe she was giving off seemed to be making Smokescreen give her a wide berth.

Miko was jumping up and down with excitement, and constantly hugging Jack around the shoulders with one arm. "I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!" she said, gripping the older boy's arm tightly.

Optimus came through first, closely followed by Bulkhead, Ratchet and Bumblebee. Then in came four unfamiliar mechs.

Arcee narrowed her optics slightly, casting a quick examination. They all looked rather young, and both the orange mech and the blue mech had doorwings. She frowned slightly when she saw the red mech. Green optics were very rare. Her frown grew deeper at the sight of the tallest of the four mechs, the purple one, with the red optics. Ok, so maybe they were a couple shades dull compared to the optics of the 'Cons, but red optics were never a good sign.

"Great!" Miko said automatically, as the groundbridge powered down. "They're here! Who are they? How'd they get here? Do they have a vehicle mode yet? How many Decepticons have they taken down?"

The mechs themselves seemed a little occupied in gathering their surroundings, though each seeming to have his own reason for this.

Bumblebee beeped and wirred, indicating towards the mechs. Raf gasped slightly, and Arcee drew in her optic ridges. "They are, or rather were, humans who were caught in the relic's shockwave," Arcee said grimly.

The orange mech's attention was drawn quickly to the femme's words. He let out a low groan. "Dudes, how many times do we have to tell them that we were not-!"

"Mikey!" the blue mech snapped.

"This is only the second time," the purple mech commented to the orange.

The blue mech grinned with a slight nervousness at the surrounding bots. "Yeah, we were somehow changed into this…" He indicated to his body. He frowned slightly. "Somehow."

"Woah, lucky!" Miko grinned widely.

The orange mech turned to her. "I know, right?" he said enthusiastically, before turning to his companions. "See, I knew I couldn't be the only one who thought that this was kinda rad!"

The red mech rolled his optics. "Great, now we have two of 'em."

Optimus stepped towards the mechs. "Since you have trusted us by following us into unknown territory, it is only fair we trust you. As you know, my name is Optimus Prime. And this is my team. You have met Bulkhead…" He indicated to said bot. "As well as our medical officer, Ratchet, and our scout, Bumblebee."

Ratchet muttered something, and Bumblebee nodded, giving a couple clicks of greeting.

"This is Arcee," Optimus continued, indicating to the small, blue two-wheeler. "And Smokescreen." The latter mentioned saluted casually, grinning.

"I'm Jack," Arcee's partner said, waving slightly. "Sorry about what happened to you by the way…"

"I think we've been through worse," the blue mech muttered, almost indistinctly. Arcee thought that they were taking this quite well for humans suddenly turned into Cybertronians.

"Anyway, we sort of help out the Autobots with any human factor they might need." Jack indicated to his friends. "This is Miko, and that's Raf."

The red mech, who had been standing on the side, looking bored and indifferent, suddenly lifted his helm. He didn't say anything, but shared the raising of an optic ridge with his companions.

"We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron," Optimus continued. "The explanation for your change of anatomy might be complicated, but it is the result of a shockwave from an invaluable technological relic from our planet. Unfortunately, it may have also resulted in you being involved in our war with the Decepticons."

"Decepticons?" said the blue mech. "Were those the other robots that attacked us?"

"Those were just expendable Vehicon troopers," Bulkhead said grimly. "Dreadwing was the real Decepticon there, and believe me, there are more where he and those troopers came from."

"Bla, bla, bla!" Miko said suddenly. "You know who we are, now it's your turn to tell us!"

The mechs exchanged glances with each other.

"Leo…" The red mech tapped his blue companion on the shoulder.

The blue bot looked up at Optimus hesitantly. "Eh… just a moment…"

"Look, are we really gonna tell them everything about us?" Raph whispered, as they all drew into a huddle. "We've been holding out so far, why not a little longer?"

"Sometimes truth is the best course of action," said Leo. "Besides, our own Sensei punished us for lying to him…" He grimaced slightly at the memory. "Do you really want to find out what giant alien robots would do to us if they found out we were hiding something?"

"But, Leo," Donnie cut in. "You just brought up another point… Splinter. We ought to be heading home soon! How would we even explain this to him?"

"How would we explain this to April?" Mikey added teasingly, elbowing his immediate older brother.

Donnie scowled, pushing him away.

"How would we even find a way to contact Splinter?" said Raph, after having pat his metal body down swiftly. "We don't have our T-Phones! What kind of a mess have you got us into Leo?"

"Me? Hey, I'm not the one who caused us to turn into this!"

"If he was, I would have thanked him a long time ago," said Mikey, who earned a smack on the head from Raph.

"But you are the one who decided to trust these… things," Raph hissed. "And from the sound of it, we've just been pulled into an intergalactic war we probably want nothing to do with."

"Like we haven't dealt with aliens and their plots before," Leo said sarcastically. He frowned, thinking. "Look," he said. "I'll admit that I had no idea what we were getting into when I had us follow Optimus Prime into the portal. But right now, we're kind of stranded. Who knows where that portal ended us up… And with no way to contact Splinter, and with no idea on how to change ourselves back to normal, I think trusting them is our only option."

"So what, we just try to explain that we used to be mutants?" said Donnie.

"Just leave the talking to me, alright?" Leo cast a stern glance at Mikey while saying this. "Besides, they're already an alien species, how hard can it be to believe that we were mutant turtles?"

The four mechs turned back to the expectant Autobots. They seemed to have come to a bit of an agreement, though the red mech looked very sullen.

"So…" The blue mech paused, and looked back towards his companions, who nodded slightly. "I'm Leonardo… or Leo. And these are my brothers, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo." He gestured to the red, purple and orange mechs.

Bumblebee let out a few low beeps that could be interpreted as a laugh. Arcee raised a wry optic ridge. Two Rafaels on base… No, this would not make things more complicated at all.

"And, well…" The mech who had designated himself as Leo shifted his pedes awkwardly. "We have a weird story, but I'm sure that nothing I'd say would surprise you guys."

"Depends," said Bulkhead, shrugging.

"Right…" Leonardo turned to his purple companion, Donatello. "Erm, Donnie, why don't you take the stand?"

"No pressure," the red mech, designated Raphael, said.

The purple mech looked between his brothers, and vented. "Alright, so, the truth is we were never humans to begin with…"

Karai was used to the weird stuff by now. Alien robots, mutant freaks… Yep, weird was definitely the new normal.

Of course, this reached a whole new level of weird. Karai had always thought that if she were to mutate, a cat like creature would be most admirable. It never crossed her mind to think of being a ten foot plus robot.

As usual, she had kept her cool. And it had made her feel better to find out she still had her tanto. Then there was the very interesting fact… the turtles had undergone this mutation as well.

And then enter more giant robots.

After Leo and his brothers had disappeared into the green portal after the blue eyed robots, the enormous blue and gold robot with the red eyes seemed to be contemplating something. Karai felt that he… or it, could probably crush her even in her current form, so she continued to do one of the things she did best; stay in the shadows, and watch.

After only a few seconds, however, the bot held a finger up to where his ear ought to be. "Soundwave," he could be heard saying in a slight British accent. "Groundbridge."

Suddenly, another green portal appeared, and the winged robot disappeared into it, the black and purple robots following, unceremoniously dragging their fallen comrades behind them. Then, they were gone.

Karai frowned slightly. What was this new… situation she had gotten herself into? What was more, how was she going to explain this to Shredder? Her father…

The power up noise that came with every portal she had seen that night sounded somewhere near to her right, and Karai glanced sharply. The green glow on the other side of the building signaled the coming, or going, of another giant robot.

'Well, I can't leave without at least saying hi…'

As soon as Dreadwing commd Soundwave, Starscream knew the show was over, and he smirked. Well, tonight really was productive in a way. The Autobots had both the relic and the neutrals, but the power was in the knowledge. He knew about the new recruits. That was enough for Starscream, who activated his groundbridge, silently cursing that Pit slagged human, Silas.

"Oh, to take flight again," the high-voiced seeker said, walking for his groundbridge. "To feel the exhilaration of speed as I soar above this scrapheap of a planet."

He leapt back with a femme like scream as a figure suddenly landed between him and his groundbridge. "You sound like a sorry love song with a twist," said a wry feminine voice.

Starscream, having quickly gotten his wits, and not quite so much his dignity, about him, quickly armed his missiles, pointing them at the femme, who's bright golden optics suggested neutrality. There was on odd symbol on the femme's chestplates, that looked like a faction insignia, but was unlike any insignia Starscream had seen before.

Narrowing said optics at the missiles, the femme drew a short sword. A servo on weapon, instead of a long range one, or even a built in one… Primus, this femme must be stupid.

"Who are you?" the seeker snapped. "You are not Arcee, nor are you any femme I have ever met, Autobot or Decepticon."

"I'll just pretend that I understood what you just said, while I ask you my own questions." The femme's voice sounded fairly young, but Starscream didn't have a chance to think much on this, as suddenly the sword of the former mentioned found its way right between Starscream's optics. A few more centimeters, and his helm would have been impaled.

"Who are you?" said the femme, as the seeker cringed, lowering his missiles. "What is going on? How have I become in this form?"

Starscream started slightly. "Become… Have you not always been in this form?"

The femme rolled her optics. "No," she said shortly.

Starscream lifted his mouth slightly in a sly grin. "You were human, weren't you?" Perhaps the relic hadn't been the failure most had been led to believe.

"Hey, listen," the femme snapped. "The sword means I get to ask the questions. So unless you have a weapon, I suggest you start answering them."

"Oh, I do." Dashing the sword aside, Starscream lunged for her neck, claws gleaming in the light of the groundbridge. Actually catching a hold of her, Starscream lifted the femme off her pedes and pressed her against the wall.

He smirked as the femme kicked and struggled, but didn't notice until the last second that her sword had reached the groundbridge remote control he had hooked to his hip. Giving a thrust, the remote gave a weak buzz and shorted out, the groundbridge extinguishing.

With a shout of surprise, Starscream dropped the femme, blinking his optics as they quickly adjusted to the lack of bright light. Human optics typically took a lot longer to adjust compared to Cybertronian optics, but however fast Starscream's optics did adjust, he wasn't fast enough, as the femme was gone.

"Scrap!" The grey and red Decepticon glared at the remains of his groundbridge remote. He could possibly repair it, but who knew how long that would take. Until then, he was stranded, helpless, at the mercy of any bot who happened to find him…

Starscream's nerves were very rattled just thinking about this, so it was instinctive paranoia that made him spin around with a scream, swiping his claws. The femme just managed to dodge the lethal weapons.

"Impressive," she said, smirking. "Not very masculine in the voice, are you? What are you anyway, or do you not have any defining genders?"

"I am a mech, human femme," Starscream snapped, pointing an arm missile at her faceplates.

"I'm not human anymore…" Suddenly, Starscream found himself on the ground, pedes swept from under him. He clutched his arm, staring in disbelief at the enormous slice from which energon was already starting to flow freely. The sword pressed on his chestplates. "If I were, I'd only be half as dangerous."

Starscream tried to push himself away, but the femme placed a pede on his chestplates, transferring the sword point to his faceplates.

"Now listen here, you high heeled freak," the femme said slowly. "You are going to answer my questions, or you will feel just how dangerous I am as one of you."


	3. Familiarization

**AS A SORT OF PEACE OFFERING, I HAVE THE THIRD CHAPTER FOR YOU. ENJOY, FREE OF REPITITIONS, I HOPE! ;)**

**Chapter Three: Familiarization**

April O'Neil was practicing her weapon in the Hamato dojo. Striking at an invisible enemy, she paused, and examined her weapon for the millionth time since she'd received it.

It was a tessen. A metal fan, with the Hamato family clan symbol inset in the blade. Beautiful, but deadly. That's how Donnie had described it when she'd showed her new weapon to him and his brothers. He punctuated the sentence with "Just like you," before blushing and moving immediately towards his lab.

April flashed back on the time Splinter had given her the tessen. Shortly before, she had accidentally knocked down the picture of him as a human, with his first family. His now deceased wife and daughter. Splinter, accepting April's apology for knocking down the photo, then began to talk about how his daughter, Miwa, would have been about April's age by now. It was then he said that he liked to think that she would have turned out a lot like April, and named her 'his child'.

It gave her a warm feeling. In the absence of her father, Splinter more than made up as a father figure. Not like April didn't want her real father back! But she was grateful to Splinter and the turtles, for accepting her as one of their odd family. She almost felt like a normal girl considering everything - even with the weirdness that surrounded them - with a father and brothers.

Brothers… Yes, that was how April saw them. The brothers she had never had. Leo, Raph, Mikey… Donnie?

Maybe… Possibly…

She wasn't sure. Donnie almost the guy of a teenage girl's dreams. He was adorably awkward, smart, kind, caring, had just the right mix of nerd and jock. But he was a mutant. And a mutant turtle hadn't been April's first thought as her high-school crush…

Wait, did she have a crush on him?

It was clear what Donnie's feelings were. She suspected that people, or mutants, with great minds didn't often socialize. Sherlock Holmes for instance. And with lack of socializing came a slight lack as to how one ought to express their emotions. Either they would let them out in a confused flood, or they would be indifferent, snubbing the emotions of the 'dull minded'. Donnie was the former.

But did April have a crush on him…?

So deep had she been in her thoughts that she actually struck a defensive stance when something rang. Then she realized it was her T-Phone.

Blushing slightly, April was silently glad that none of the boys had been around to see that.

'Speaking of which, shouldn't they be home by now?'

Her blush grew still deeper when she saw who was calling. Or more, she blushed at the caller ID photo she had chosen (decorated) for that particular caller.

"Hey, Donnie," she said, answering the phone.

"Woah, it works!" came the reply.

"Excuse me?"

She could hear a whisper on the other end - "It's like Bluetooth, only built in…" - before Donnie's voice came back. "Nothing, nothing…"

Fact about Donatello; he was a horrible liar.

"I just called to tell you…" There was a nervous laugh. "Well, funny story really, but… Is Splinter there?"

"Yeah," April said slowly, starting to get a bit suspicious. "He's meditating. Where are you guys, anyway? You're supposed to be home by now."

"April, we've come upon a bit of a… situation…"

"What?" April's eyes widened. "What happened? Are any of you guys hurt? Are you captured? Oh, gosh, Leo got himself killed didn't he? No, was it Mikey? Or Raph?"

"April. April!" Donnie's shout shut her up. "We're all fine. Sort of…" There was a pause. "Shut up, Raph. Look, April… We aren't hurt at all, it's just… We won't be able to come home for awhile."

"I knew it! You guys are captured, aren't you?"

"Who is captured?" Splinter entered the dojo, casting a severe glance at April. "Are you talking to the boys?"

"Oh, gosh… That's Splinter isn't it?" Donnie said timorously. "Please tell him everything is fine, please…? Not helping, Leo!"

"Yes, it's Donnie," April said, a little curtly for the sake of Donnie, turning her phone on loud speaker.

"Donatello?" said Splinter.

"H-hey, Sensei…" said Donnie.

Splinter walked over to stand next to April, who quickly turned the phone over so he could not see her ID photo. "Donatello, where are you? Where are your brothers?"

"We're all here."

"And where is here?"

Donnie could be heard groaning slightly. "It's really hard to explain, but we've been caught up in a little situation. I promise that we are all fine, unhurt…" There was another pause. "Go away, Mikey! And we are perfectly safe! Sort of."

Splinter and April glanced at each other. "Can we talk to the others?" asked April.

"No, sorry."

"Donnie, what happened? Why can't we talk to them?" April was getting both very irritated and very worried.

"I'm telling you that they're fine, it's just- Ugh! It's really complicated!" There was a pause as Donnie breathed heavily. "Look, we're just going to solve a slight complication, and I promise we will be home as soon as possible."

"Hamato Donatello, you tell me what is going on right now," Splinter snapped.

There was a low sigh. "It's really complicated," Donnie said again. "I have to help solve this complication right now if you want us home sooner. Love you both…" Pause. "All three of you, stoppit, go away, shut up… Goodbye."

April's phone beeped, signaling his hanging up.

Donnie cut the comm link connection, and sighed. He would have been a lot happier having talked to April and his Sensei if he could have just told them everything. But how was he supposed to do that, especially over the phone?

"Don't be too broken up about it, Donnie," said Leo. "Like you said, you're gonna help, and…"

"Why in the Allspark would you think that you could help?" They were interrupted by the red and white bot; the medic, Ratchet.

After their story had been told - surprisingly, it had been accepted reasonably well, but the human girl, Miko, looked as though she were about to suffocate from lack of air as unintelligible questions left her in a flood - the medic bot had insisted on scanning them. The scanner was a giant, clear tube, that one stood in, allowing the blue light to go over their body.

Leo had been volunteered, none of the others really thinking much of the idea, despite Ratchet's very irritated reassurances that it wouldn't hurt. Leo didn't actually volunteer, he had been volunteered, but he went through it without fuss. It wasn't so bad. It gave him a sort of a tingly feeling as the light went through his internals.

"Not me, sir," Leo said. "My brother." He jerked his head towards Donnie.

"Sit still," Ratchet said irritably. "And what makes you think that your brother could help in this matter? He knows nothing of Cybertronians, or their anatomy."

"I can learn," Donnie spoke up. "I'm good at that. I am a scientist after all, and more advanced than most."

Ratchet paused, before turning off the scanner. "Alright, step out now," he said to Leo, who did as he was told. "I have officially confirmed, your entire body is of Cybertronian anatomy." He turned to the other three mechs. "I can only logically assume your brothers have undergone the same thing. However," he snapped, as Mikey and Raph turned away. "Just for good measure, all of you will undergo a scan. You first." He gestured to Raph.

Raph crossed his arms defiantly. "Why?"

"Because I said so," Ratchet said irritably. "And don't think I don't see that laser burn on your shoulder."

Frowning, Raph cast a glance at his shoulder. Indeed, there was a very nice burn marring the bright red paint, and there was even a small crack in the metal. He'd almost forgotten about it. Raph wasn't entirely irrespective to pain, but he'd learned to ignore it.

"I'm fine," Raph said shortly. "I've had worse."

Donnie poked his brother's shoulder, directly on the crack, and Raph yelped. He growled, and smacked a fist on Donnie's shoulder.

Leo sighed exasperatedly. "Just do it, Raph."

"I'd do it, kid," said Bulkhead, who was handling an enormous metal ball. He seemed to be waiting for something. "Unless you want a wrench shaped dent in your helm."

Raph snorted slightly, but paused when seeing Ratchet's eyes narrow sharply.

"Fine," he muttered sullenly.

Ratchet had him sit down on what looked like a metal bed, that he called the medical berth, and used a scanner inset into his arm to examine the shoulder of the temperamental turtle-turned-robot.

In his typical manner, Raph unsheathed his sai, and slammed them onto the berth, knocking over a few obscure, but evidently fragile objects.

Ratchet seized an enormous wrench, and dealt a heavy blow to the red mech's helm. "I NEEDED THAT!"

Arcee moved next to Leo, who looked a bit alarmed, and smirked. "Don't take it too personally, kid," she said wryly. "This is him on a good mood. And considering that he's just given your brother his trademark wrench treatment, I'd say that he's already accepted you."

Leo relaxed a bit, and smiled when he saw Raph sitting on the medical berth, still sullen, but not moving an inch. "Hm… Well, Raph's always the one dealing the blows. He needs to have his own back for a change."

"Hey, Don-bot!" The shout sounded directly into Donnie's ear, and he yelped in surprise, jumping back from where he had been leaning against a platform. Spinning around, he saw the human girl, Miko, laughing. She couldn't have been any older than they were, but Donnie thought he had never met someone more immature.

Mikey's laughter began mingling in with Miko's, due to his brother's reaction.

Never mind.

"Miko," said Bulkhead, sounding reproving.

"What?" Miko said innocently. She leaned on the guardrail, grinning widely at Donnie. "So… who's April?"

"Do not answer that if you want to keep your dignity or sanity!" Jack called. He was playing a video game with Raf.

Donnie whirled to glare at Mikey. "We've only just met them! What did you say?"

"Oh, he didn't say anything," said Miko. "But you just spilling everything."

Mikey grinned nervously underneath Donnie's glare, and walked away casually. "Hey, is that Racer XV?" he asked enthusiastically, moving behind where Jack and Raf sat playing the video game.

"Yeah," said Raf, smiling. "Want to play?"

Mikey frowned at his hands. "That'd be cool, but my brothers already complain about me breaking stuff…"

"Oh, that's not a problem!" said Raf. "You don't have to use our controls… 'Bee plays with me all the time!"

"Then let's do this!" Mikey pumped his fist enthusiastically.

Miko ran over to where the two human boys sat. "I play winner!"

Leo sighed, sounding both a little exasperated, and a little relieved. "Well, that oughta keep him occupied for a bit…" Unconsciously, the wings on his back started to lower. They tensed sharply when something touched them, and he spun around, pointing his rapidly unsheathed katana at Donnie's face.

"Dude," Donnie said, hands held up in a surrendering position. "Tone your instincts down a notch will ya?"

"Sorry…" Leo said, slightly stiffly, sheathing his katana. He strained to look over his shoulder at the wings. He felt a light shudder run through them as Donnie examined them closely (that's probably why he touched them; being naturally curious, Donnie often got a little lost in his examinations). As a ninja, he was trained to feel eyes on him, but this was the first time when Leo could literally feel Donnie's eyes examining him.

"Doorwings."

Leo looked up to see the white, blue and red bot, Smokescreen, walking towards them. "We scouted the relic area," he told Arcee, gesturing between himself and Bumblebee. "No sign of any 'Cons, or…" He nodded at Leo. "Smaller… alien bots."

"Doorwings?" said Donnie.

Bumblebee beeped and clicked, gesturing to his own back, where a set of yellow, black striped wings lay. Leo could almost understand the bot, catching, "That's… call… Highly… data collectors… Sensitive."

"Sorry," said Leo. "But… I didn't quite catch all of that."

"Bumblebee speaks in what can be described as a binary language," said Ratchet, beginning to patch up Raph's shoulder. "As you are now Cybertronians, but not yet fully adapted to your new form, you ought to understand him with time."

"He said that doorwings are what they call these," said Donnie, tapping on Leo's own 'doorwings', causing him to flinch slightly as a sharp spasm went through the wings. "They're highly receptive data collectors, and extremely sensitive."

Ratchet paused what he was doing. "You heard all of that?"

"Yeah," said Donnie, sounding a little bit like 'well, duh'. "Like I said, I'm a scientist. In both technology and biology."

Bumblebee gave a little thumbs up, beeping. "…first outsider… Raf… who understood me!"

"Well, why doesn't he talk normal?" said Leo, who instantly knew he had hit on a sensitive subject. Ratchet automatically went back to his work, Arcee turned away, Bulkhead's features saddened, and Bumblebee's shoulders slumped. Smokescreen seemed to just step back awkwardly.

"I'm really sorry," Leo said quickly, and yet trying to sound sincere at the same time. "So…" He tried, very weakly, he knew, to change the subject. "Doorwings…"

"Yeah, like 'Bee said, they're highly sensitive receptors," said Smokescreen. "It's generally hard to sneak up on a doorwinged bot, which makes most bots with doorwings excellent scouts." Smokescreen's own doorwings, both of which had red 38s screaming up the sides, twitched slightly. "There are the cons of course. The most obvious of which being that 'highly sensitive' generally translates to 'highly receptive to pain'. Not as bad as if a flyer's wings were hurt, I guess, but painful."

"And good luck playing a poker face if you have doorwings," said Bulkhead. "Cause those things betray emotions better than your faceplates, if you're familiar with them."

"So, why 'door' wings?" asked Donnie.

Leo flinched against as his brother touched his wings. "I swear, if you do that one more time…"

"…look… wings in bot mode," Bumblebee beeped. "…actually doors… vehicular mode."

"And the sweeter the V-mode," said Smokescreen, smirking. "The sweeter the wings."

Arcee rolled her eyes. "Yes, Smokescreen," she said sarcastically. "Femmes will be falling over each other to have you."

This seemed to shut the young sounding bot up.

"You have a vehicular mode?" Donnie said suddenly, sounding very excited in the way he always did when finding out something new. "So, you can transform into vehicles?"

"Yes," said Ratchet, sounding a little absent. "Ok, you can go now," he said to Raph, who stood up.

"Finally," the red mech muttered.

"We must live on this planet in secret," said Ratchet, turning to the gathering to mechs (and femme). "So we transform into your earth based vehicles, in the hope that we will go unnoticed. If one follows the human based laws, and one stays in recon while around humans… then our secret is safe."

"Hey, that was one time," Smokescreen said defensively, doorwings twitching again. "And I said I was sorry…"

"I feel for you," said Leo. "Only we can't really hide in plain sight."

"Well, maybe you can now!" Smokescreen said enthusiastically.

Ratchet narrowed his eyes at him. "We're hoping they don't have to," he said severely. "You…" He gestured to Donnie, then to the scan tube. "Get in. As soon as I'm finished with these scans, I will be finding out as much as I can about the thoroughness of the assimilation and if it can be reversed. Then you can be out of our secret, and you out of ours."

Donnie watched in fascination as the blue pinpoints of light went over his body.

"So, you can choose any vehicular mode?" he said. "What about aerial vehicles? Y'know, helicopters and such."

Arcee frowned, looking a bit dark. "Autobots - and neutrals - very rarely have aerial modes. That is a trait normally found in Decepticons."

"Well, that doesn't seem fair," Raph muttered.

"It's not," said Bulkhead. He punched a fist into his palm, smirking. "But that doesn't prevent us from occasionally getting the upper hand, and kicking some 'Con skid-plate."

"Sounds like my kind of upper hand."

A revving engine caused all but Optimus Prime, who seemed almost irrespective to all around him as he studied something on the giant, multiple screened computer in the middle of the room, to turn around. Zooming in from a hall, a white Ferrari with green and red stripes did a 360° spin as it halted.

"Hey, hey, Jackie!" Bulkhead grabbed the metal ball he had been holding awhile ago, and tossed it at the car.

At the last moment, the car, with a loud wirr, transformed into a robot, who caught the ball with a grunt. "I'm getting better," the bot said in a low voice that yet clearly portrayed self-satisfaction, as he smirked.

"Dude!" said Mikey, finally pulling himself from the video game, and running towards the bot. "That was beyond rad! That was… be-rad!"

Miko snapped her fingers. "Dude, that's a good one… I have to use that sometime."

"And who would the new guys be?" said the new bot, looking from Mikey, to Raph and Leo, to Donnie.

"They are guests, Wheeljack," Ratchet said from his work corner. "And as such, you will not be displaying to them any of your unsavory behavior."

"Whatever you say, doc," the new bot, called 'Wheeljack', said in a bored voice. He suddenly threw the ball at Bulkhead, but his aiming seemed a bit off.

Raph threw his hands up instinctively, somehow catching the ball. He looked from it, to Wheeljack, to Leo, with very wide eyes. Then, he lifted it up and down in his hands. It was at least as tall as most of his upper body, but he smirked slightly.

"It's lighter than it looks," he commented. He threw it back to Wheeljack, who caught it.

"Hey, not bad, kid…" Wheeljack placed the ball on the ground, and smirked slightly at Raph. "You sure you not descended from a Wrecker or something… Seaspray coulda gone and actually gone through with his sparkmate plan…"

Ratchet grumbled something, and Arcee rolled her eyes. Leo got the impression that this bot wasn't known for his rule abiding, which is what Arcee and Ratchet seemed to value.

"I dunno what 'Seaspray' is," Raph said. "Or 'Wrecker'. But the last one sounds kinda cool."

Ratchet's grumbling grew louder. "Man, they are the coolest!" Smokescreen said enthusiastically. "You have no idea how much they've done in the war!"

Wheeljack turned to Bulkhead. "Where'd you say you got this lot again?"

"It's kind of a long story," Bulkhead started.

"Then I'll hear it later." Wheeljack walked down another hall. "I'm getting some energon."

"Sparingly!" Ratchet shouted. "Sparingly!"

Arcee crossed her arms. "Wheeljack doesn't work well with others," she said to Leo. "Or that's what he says. Whatever he says to you, don't take it too personally."

"I think I'm starting to get a lot of that," said Leo.

"Jackie can be a bit rough," Bulkhead admitted.

"But he's an awesome guy once you get to know him!" Miko said.

"If you get to know him," Arcee muttered


	4. Information

Chapter Four: Information

"Are you certain of this, Dreadwing?"

The unusually large jet nodded once. "Positive, Lord Megatron."

Megatron narrowed his optics. "Then perhaps your mission has not been a total loss," he said contemplatively. He still glared at his SIC. "But I am greatly disappointed in you, Dreadwing. I thought you, one of the best in my ranks, would at least bring me more than just words."

Dreadwing looked at the ground respectfully. Unlike his last SIC, Starscream, Megatron had not once laid a servo on Dreadwing, but that did not mean the blue and gold jet was out of reach of death by Megatron's servo.

"But the neutrals matter nothing to me at the moment…" Megatron turned away from his SIC. "Red optics or none… But we still must hasten our work in finding the rest of the Iacon relics. Have you anything, Soundwave?"

The faceless mech didn't once turn from his work, and of course stayed silent. Megatron nodded.

"Inform me as soon as you gain any results."

Knock Out, having heard the whole story of Dreadwing's failure, smirked, happy that he wasn't the only one who had nearly suffered the wrath of Lord Megatron.

"Do you not have a med-bay that requires your presence, doctor?" Megatron said in a low, dangerous voice.

Technically, the med-bay did not need Knock Out's presence. All dead Vehicons were… dead. And Knock Out had long since tired from dissecting the miserable carcasses, so that every single wire, every single optic fiber, every internal working of the disposable drones were known to him. But the words of the Decepticon warlord did not suggest. They commanded.

"Of course, my liege…" The red Aston Martin bowed respectfully, backing out of the Nemesis bridge.

Megatron's optic ridges drew down in a thoughtful expression. "No normal neutrals, you said?"

"No, my lord," said Dreadwing. "For one thing, their fighting style, though I did not see much of it, was unlike that of a typical Cybertronian. Most neutrals are hardly able to handle a gun, as you know. Also, I saw not one single built in weapon among them."

"Perhaps neutrals in their own, separate faction," Megatron said. "Or perhaps even deserters of the Autobots, or deserters of our own cause."

Dreadwing said nothing. He knew as much as the Decepticon leader, and the Decepticon leader did not often stand listening to I don't nos. Say something useful, or have your voice box torn out.

Suddenly, a blip could be heard as Soundwave turned from his work, something flashing on his screen mask.

"Already, Soundwave?" Megatron said, voice betraying surprise, and pleasure.

Soundwave stayed silent, scrolling a short message of Cybertronian on his mask screen. Megatron's optics narrowed, and he bared his denta.

"Well… It appears that another deserter of our own cause has come to grips with his crime. Come, Dreadwing…" Megatron exited the bridge, his second-in-command following close behind. "Our dearest Starscream has called for his master."

"Karai… What has happened to you?"

Karai pointed her tanto at the face of the high voiced robot. He had called himself Starscream, and Karai had to admit, the name suited him.

"Ask him," she said coldly.

Starscream looked up at her with wide, red eyes as the Shredder approached. "What is this, femme?" he snapped. "Who is this… organic?"

Karai traced the scar on the right of the robot's face with her tanto. Apparently robots could scar… "This 'organic' is my father," she said dangerously. "And you will show him the same respect as you have shown me this past half hour."

That's how long it had taken for Starscream to ramble something about Autobots and Decepticons, and a war between these two factions, and something about a relic having caused Karai's mutation. After which, Karai had contacted her father through what Starscream called a comm link.

"They are an alien robot species from another planet," said Karai, looking down at her father. "Somehow a bit of their technology turned me into this."

Standing at a respective distance, a mutant fish with robotic legs, and an enormous mutant dog watched with open amusement.

"After all this time being labeling us freaks," said Xever, the mutant fish. "She will now taste her own medicine."

Karai heard them, realizing that her hearing was a lot sharper than it even was as a human ninja. "No, I won't," she said casually. She pointed the sword in their direction. "In fact, I'm kind of liking this new form. I can crush the two of you without even trying, and you know that, Xever."

"Karai, your discovery of the Kraang proved useful," said Shredder, bringing his daughter's attention back to him. "But our top priority is Splinter and the turtles. So unless this… alien can provide us with something, I suggest you dispose of him. We will find Baxter Stockman, and see if he cannot change you back…"

Starscream had been under Karai's foot for awhile, not even bothering to fight back. And now that Karai had her knife pointed in his face again, and having heard Shredder's order, the reason for his name really showed.

"No! No, I beg of you! Don't take me offline!" He clasped his hands together in a pleading gesture. "I have information on the relic that turned you Cybertronian!"

Shredder narrowed his eyes. "Explain," he said.

Starscream's lip curled slightly as he sneered at him, and Karai poked his neck threateningly. "As I have told you before, it was a valuable relic from Iacon, one of the cities on my home planet," Starscream said quickly. "Unfortunately, the Autobots collected it before either I, or the Decepticons, could get my servos on it. And to add insult to injury, the Autobots have now gained the neutrals as their allies."

The last part was muttered in a sullen manner, but Karai narrowed her eyes. "Neutrals?"

"Yes, the four mechs who entered the Autobot groundbridge after Optimus Prime."

Karai's grip on her tanto became tighter. "Why did you not mention this before?" she demanded.

Starscream glared at her. "A femme waving a sword in my faceplates does not encourage my processor to do much more than go through self-preservation tactics."

"Father," said Karai, looking down at the armored man. "The turtles also assumed the same mutation as I did. It could be that these 'neutrals' that he's mentioned are them."

Shredder gave a low 'hm…' as he approached the enormous robot. The Shredder would have been about as tall and the robot's face was long.

"Is there a way we could contact these… Autobots?" the armored ninja said.

"Yes…" Starscream said shortly. "But there is doubt as to whether they will respond. I do not have the most… reliable reputation amongst the Autobots."

Karai pointed her tanto in his face again.

"But I can contact the opposite faction!" he recovered quickly. "My own! The Decepticons! They will know how to draw the Autobots out!"

"Then I suggest you do so," said Karai. She sheathed her sword.

Starscream was having a bad day. First, he had failed to collect the Assimilator. Then, he had failed to make first contact with the neutrals… Who apparently weren't even real neutrals. And he'd found that out from a human-turned-Cybertronian femme, who had kicked his aft and forced him to comply with the wishes of herself, and her human sire.

And now he was practically waiting for Lord Megatron to come and blow his helm off.

A low whirring sound made the Decepticon seeker look up.

"Soundwave!" Starscream shouted, seeing the third-in-command's bird drone, Laserbeak, flying above. "I wish to tell Lord Megatron information of the Autobots' neutral allies and…" He turned to see the dark femme raising an optic ridge, one servo on the hilt of her sword. "…of a possible alliance in the Decepticon's favor."

Inwardly, Starscream was praying to Primus that today would not be his offlining day. He let out a low vent of relief as the bird drone flew away, without shooting at him.

A couple seconds later, a groundbridge appeared, and the two enormous forms of Megatron and Dreadwing stalked through.

"Oh, great Lord Megatron," said Starscream, approaching his former master. "It fills my spark with pleasure to see you- Ah!" The cowardly seeker screamed as the right arm of the Decepticon warlord swung towards him - the arm that always had his trademark cannon.

There was a couple seconds of silence, and Starscream looked between his claws. There was no grey cannon, shining with purple white energy. In fact there was no grey. Megatron's arm was a red maroon, decorated with golden streaks, the servo having a complete lack of claws.

Before Starscream could comment on his former master's new arm, Megatron had grabbed him by the throat.

"Give me one reason why I should not offline you, Starscream," he growled.

"Did I miss some mention of bad blood," said the femme, still standing behind Starscream.

Megatron's optics narrowed, finally noticing the femme. Dropping Starscream, he indicated to her.

"What is this?" he growled.

Starscream rubbed his neck cables, getting to his pedes. "A possible ally, my lord," he said.

"And why should I trust any ally of yours, Starscream?" Megatron turned to his former SIC. "Was Airachnid not once your ally?"

Starscream winced slightly. The slagging spider femme… Oh, how his energon boiled to think of her.

"I think… Starscream failed to mention that he was on death row in your mind," said the femme stepping forward.

Primus, this femme was stupid. Anyone with their processor in the right place ought to know that Megatron was not one to be trifled with, and she was approaching him like he was nothing important. But then Starscream reminded himself that this femme was actually human. And humans were without a doubt the stupidest life forms ever.

"My name is Karai," said the femme. "And according to your cross dressing - or cross plating, whatever the heck you robots use - friend here, you can help me track down some certain friends of my own."

Megatron growled. "Do you know who I am, femme?"

The femme who had designated herself 'Karai' waved a servo carelessly. "King of the Decepticons, some faction against the Autobots… Whatever. I just care about the Autobots right now."

Megatron was stunned. Never, in his life, had anybot spoken to him like that. He suddenly regretted that he didn't have his cannon arm - that arm having been replaced by the arm of one of the great primes, possibly Liege Maximo, not like that mattered anything to Megatron. But it did matter to Megatron that he couldn't have the femme trembling in terror underneath his cannon.

Instead he simply growled. "To join them, no doubt," he said. "It is unwise to be telling me this, neutral femme, as this makes you my enemy, and thus signing you for instant death."

"Neutrals, femmes, enemies, death, whatever." The femme put her servos on her hips. "I am actually human…"

Megatron raised an optic ridge.

"And, again according to your friend here, was turned into one of you by a certain weapon called the Assimilator, which, as I understand, is now in the hands of the Autobots." The femme smirked slightly.

"And did Starscream fail to mention that the Decepticons have no dealings with humans?" said Megatron. "No matter what their form?"

The femme cast a glance at the spindly seeker, who held his servos up in front of his faceplates defensively.

"I am not any ordinary human," said the femme.

"Karai?" said a low voice near the femme's pedes. "What is causing this delay?"

Megatron looked down to see a human, clad entirely in armor. "What is this?" he asked the femme in a low, dangerous voice.

"My father," said the femme. "And he is the one you will truly be making alliance with."

"Well, this night has given its fair share of oddities…" Megatron turned away thoughtfully. "Do you not know that the last human who failed in our alliance, ended up on the dissection table of my medic?"

The femme, Karai, narrowed her optics. "Like I said, I am no ordinary human. And neither is my father."

"Neither was the human who attempted an alliance with me."

"But I won't fail." Karai drew the short sword she had sheathed behind her waist. "I don't fail… Just get me into the Autobot headquarters, and I'll retrieve your little weapon."

Megatron turned back to her. "But no offer comes without a price," he said. "What will yours be?"

Karai's smirk became wider. "The four so-called neutrals."


	5. Suspicion

"See, you're so nice to them," Smokescreen commented to Arcee, indicating to the four new mechs. "What did I do to deserve your wrath when I first came?"

"Almost blowing us sky high?" Arcee suggested wryly.

Smokescreen narrowed his optics for a moment. "I can see your point."

"So, what, do you usually go by first impressions or something?" said Leo, talking to Arcee.

"I can respect that," said Raph. He was constantly twirling his sai in his hands, trying to get a feel for this new body.

"If you've ever gone through my life," said Arcee. "You would be a bit more wary as well. No telling what could be a trap."

Leo nodded. "I hear you on that one."

"Yeah, we've had loads of experience in that," said Raph, walking over. "Though wary first impressions aren't exactly Leo's thing…"

Leo narrowed his eyes, knowing his brother was referring to the Karai incident. Mikey, who had been watching Miko versus Raf in Racer XV, suddenly stepped away, rubbing his stomach region.

"Dude," he muttered. "I'm hungry… What do you alien robot guys eat anyway?"

"Energon," Bumblebee beeped. "Though… technically… drink it."

Mikey scratched the top of his head. "Did I miss something?" he asked. "Because I don't understand…"

"I think he said that they drink something called energon, Mikey," Leo said quickly, before his youngest brother could say anything to accidentally offend the Autobots.

Bumblebee nodded his affirmative.

"Oh…" The orange ninja slumped slightly. "I guess that's a no go on the pizza, then?"

Arcee, and Bumblebee looked confused, Bulkhead having followed Wheeljack soon after the latter had left the main room. Miko, however, spoke up from where she was still playing her video game.

"Dude, I love pizza!"

"I love pizza too!" Mikey exclaimed excitedly.

Smokescreen's doorwings were twitching again, and Jack let out a short, guilty laugh.

Miko turned, distracted, and her car on the game crashed. "Aw…" she said disappointedly. Raf and Jack high-fived.

"So, energon is your source of… fuel?" asked Donnie.

"Yes," said Ratchet. "It is basically the life force of a Cybertronian. Our blood, if you will."

"Really?" Donnie lifted his arm interestedly, as if hoping to see the 'blood' in his veins… or tubes, whatever these robots had.

"For Primus' sake… Sit still and you can do all the moving you want outside the scanner!" Ratchet snapped.

"So… you drink your own blood?" said Raph, his lip curling slightly as he thought about it.

Smokescreen shuddered. "Wow… I hadn't thought about it that way. Now I think we definitely need a new name for one or the other."

"Shouldn't have said that," Donnie muttered.

"Dude, when it comes to naming stuff," said Mikey, approaching them. "I am the pro."

"I think that they're fine, Mikey," said Leo, perhaps a little shortly.

The teenaged ninja turned away. "Fine. But I had some real awesome Donnie, science-y sounding stuff… ideas."

"Then we definitely don't wanna hear them," Raph said shortly.

"Alright, now you can step out." Ratchet turned off the scanning tube, and Donnie stepped out. The medical bot started suddenly, looking at the scans. "By the Allspark…"

"What?" Donnie said automatically, turning around.

"What is it, Ratchet?" asked Arcee, stepping forward.

Ratchet turned, frowning slightly. "According to the scans, Donatello has… wings. A pair of wings hidden in two subspaces."

Donnie's eyes widened slightly. Then, he frowned slightly in concentration, a silver, metal tongue sticking out of his mouth. Suddenly, with a couple short clicks and a wirr, a pair of wings, more angular, and slightly larger than either Leo's or Mikey's, appeared on the purple ninja's back.

"Hey!" he said, sounding a little surprised. "I did it!"

"Yes, you adapt fast…" Ratchet sounded a little absent as he circled Donnie. "Very interesting."

"You have jet wings," said Arcee. Her purple blue eyes were narrowed slightly. "Flyer wings."

"And that means…?" Donnie shrugged.

"That means you can chose an aerial mode!" said Smokescreen. "Man, that is epic!"

Mikey groaned. "Aw, Donnie has all the fun…"

Wings aside, Ratchet had suggested that all four mechs have some energon, as Donatello's scans showed his own energon levels as fairly low. Smokescreen had volunteered to grab them some. As Leonardo received his cube, he looked towards Bumblebee.

"Hey," he said. "Sorry if my brother offended you or anything. Mikey, well… he's a little bit slow to the uptake."

Bumblebee looked at him for a couple seconds, confused. Then, he remembered. He shook his helm. "He didn't, really. I'm fairly used to it."

Leo nodded, seeming to have understood most of what 'Bee had said. Then, he looked at the cube in his servo. The blue mech turned it in his servos a couple times, then, turned back to the yellow and black scout.

"How do you…?"

Bumblebee let out a few short beeps of laughter, before taking the cube in his own servo. "Just bite off the corner, and drink from there," he explained, tapping one of the corners of the cube, before handing it back.

Leo did as he was told. He hesitated. "You sure this is safe? For me, I mean. Ratchet said that we might need some time to fully adapt to our bodies."

"Ratchet also said you ought to have some energon," Smokescreen pointed out, walking over.

"It tastes like candy!" The three gathered mechs looked up to see Michelangelo chugging on his energon cube with a vigor.

"Your brother likes it," Bumblebee beeped.

"Yeah, but Mikey's sense of taste isn't much to go on." Leo looked at the cube, and shrugged. "What the heck…?"

Miko crossed her arms, looking slightly envious. "Candy?" she said to Mikey. "Man, now I really want to become a Cybertronian!"

"Well, why don't you try it now?" said Mikey, stopping to take a breath after his energon chug. Cybertronians didn't really need air to breathe, but perhaps this was force of organic habit.

"Oh, no," Jack said suddenly, he and Raf finally getting bored with the video game, and turning it off. "Even Miko knows better than to do something like that."

"It would only be logical to assume that organics plus this stuff equals death, Mikey," said Donnie, walking over. He himself was eyeing his cube with a curious optic, not having actually drunk from it yet. "Is this fuel exclusively from the planet Cybertron, or…?"

"No," said Raf. "A bit of a long story, but the Decepticons are mainly here because our planet apparently has the biggest energon deposit, possibly the only energon deposit, in the galaxy. Except for Cybertron, but then, it's sort of… dead right now." The twelve year old prodigy snapped his fingers. "That reminds me…" He ran over to the couch, where his laptop lay, opening his laptop. "I'd better check the unusual sightings website to check if any of the 'Bots were caught on camera. New York never sleeps, y'know."

Donnie leaned in unconsciously, trying to get a better look at the laptop, backing off when the guardrail started to creak under his hand. "Never heard of that site," he said thoughtfully. "Could you send it to me at some point? No telling how many cameras might've caught us on the rooftops."

"You know how to scrub something off the Internet?" said Raf, his voice suggesting interest, not want for instruction.

"Well, yeah, it's pretty simple…" Donnie started.

While this was going on, Mikey had shrugged, and downed the rest of his energon. "Miko," he said slowly. "Do you know that your name is Japanese for witch or something like that?"

"Duh, yeah!" said Miko. "I think my parents foresaw my future," she said impishly. "So, what, you speak Japanese?"

"Not usually," said Mikey. "Normally it's Leo who does it, but I understand it."

"Funny," said Jack. "You didn't really strike me as the… Japan sounding kinda guy. Any of you actually."

Mikey suddenly drew a something from a sheath, and began waving it around in a couple fancy moves, before catching part of it under his shoulder.

"Suh-weet!" said Miko. "Plasma 'chucks!"

"And in case these didn't give it away," said Mikey. "I am a ninja. Our Sensei's a ninja! And our Sensei's from Japan. Yep… Mm-hm." He nodded, looking pleased with himself.

He tossed the plasma 'chuck over his shoulder, accidentally smacking Raph on the helm. The red mech turned, glaring, and returned the blow with his fist.

"Ow!"

Arcee glanced at Leo, who just rolled his optics as he downed the last of his energon. "Are they always like this?"

"You have no idea," Leo replied. He ran his glossa over his denta. "That was interesting," he commented, looking at the empty cube.

"Told you!" Smokescreen exclaimed.

"What about your other brother?" Arcee asked slowly. She tried not to sound suggestive, but in her processor, she failed.

"Donnie?" said Leo. "Eh… He's normally a little better."

"Hey, kid…" Arcee looked over Leo's shoulder to see Wheeljack and Bulkhead, Wheeljack having been the one who had addressed Leo.

Arcee privately thought that if the two Wreckers hadn't been spending the past half hour or so indulging on someone's - most likely Wheeljack's - private stash of high-grade energon, then her carrier was a Decepticon.

"I noticed you got some sword action going on there…" Wheeljack indicated to Leo's back.

Leo blinked, then halfway drew one of his swords. Katanas, like Wheeljack's. "Yeah," he said, sheathing the weapon. "It's my preferred weapon."

"You good?" the white, green and red Wrecker asked.

Arcee raised an optic ridge, seeing where this was going. She could see from the look in Leo's optics that he was slightly confused, a kind of offended, and perhaps even a little challenging.

"I think I'm good," he said, crossing his arms, and sounding a little defensive.

"Hm… Whatever you say." Wheeljack turned away.

"You know he's going to want to spar at some point," Arcee said warningly.

Leo looked at her, confused. "What?"

"When Wheeljack isn't making things explode, he's stabbing them with his katanas," Arcee explained. "Servo on weapons aren't all that common. And with a mech like Wheeljack, he's dying for a bit of a challenge. So just keep your senses alert, kid. Wheeljack isn't renowned for being an orthodox fighter."

"Well, he doesn't know ninjutsu," Leo said, still sounding a little defensive. "I think I'm fine."

Arcee raised her servos in a surrendering gesture. "If you say so." She was silent for a couple moments. But the suspicions which had been growing over the past two hours or more could not be contained. "Leonardo," she said finally. "Your brother, Donatello… had he ever displayed any… violent behavior?"

"Yeah," said Leo, his voice sounding like 'well, duh'. "We go out almost every night to kick some bad guy butt. 'We' includes Donnie."

"Right, but I mean… destructively violent?"

"Destructive is him trying to make something, and pretty much blowing up our home in the process."

"A short temper perhaps? Or deceptive behavior?"

Leo snorted. "Short temper?" He indicated to Raph, who had Mikey in a helm-lock. "You want the short temper in my family, just look for the red."

"Deceptive behavior?" Arcee said again.

"Heck, no! He's pretty much the most honest guy on the team, except for Mikey." Leo's blue optics narrowed suddenly. "Why?"

Arcee vented. "Look, Leonardo," she said slowly, her voice dropping into a whisper. "Leo… I myself will be honest by saying your brother's flyer wings, his red optics… Those are all classic Decepticon traits."

Leo cast the purple mech a quick glance. "So what?" he said. His voice had a bit of an edge to it, sounding a lot more defensive than he had been against Wheeljack. "His eyes aren't really 'red' anyway, they're the same color as they were when we were normal."

"Leo," said Arcee. "In Cybertronians, our optic color has an odd effect to our entire basis of personality. And while it is not always accurate, those of yellow optic color usually show deceptive, or purposely destructive behavior, some of them actually joining the Decepticons, despite being neutral. This is thought to be because yellow is right next to red on the color chart. And all red optics belong to the Decepticons. Trickery, destruction… Those are the 'morals' of the 'Cons."

Leo turned away. "That doesn't mean anything to us," he said. "We aren't really one of you, and you know that."

"But you'll be adapting," said Arcee, for some reason feeling a little impatient. "And though he may not know it, whatever physical Decepticon traits your brother has might eventually work through to his processor…"

Leo turned back to her. His optic ridges were drawn down in a frown. He jerked a thumb at Donatello, who was talking with Rafael about computers in a very animated manner. "That's the nature of a born killer," he said sarcastically.

"Look," Leo said, causing Arcee to turn back to him. He was definitely defensive now. "We are not a part of your world or whatever, and my brother is most certainly not a part of these Decepticons. And if us adapting has been defined as bad, then fine. We want to go home anyway, and hopefully your medic will be able to change us back."

He turned away again, and Arcee knew when a conversation was over.

Leo could feel his 'doorwings' fluttering agitatedly. He felt a little angry at Arcee.

But why? He didn't really know anything about these Decepticons… Heck, he didn't really know anything about this alien robot species in general.

But Leo had instinctively felt hostile towards that large, red eyed bot who had tried to convince them to join the Decepticons. And instinct told him that red eyes were a bad omen. Even if those red eyes belonged to his brother.

A/N HardyGal: BUAHAHAHA! I feel so eeeeeviiilll! -eyes start turning red-

I don't know if you saw the reference to episode Legacy (TFP), and indeed, it's very small, but it has something to do with pizza.


	6. Action

**ONCE AGAIN, THIS ISN/T MY OWN FIC. I AM JUST POSTING THE CHAPTERS THAT MY FRIEND SENDS ME VIA E-MAIL. THIS IS ALL HER OWN IDEA, BUT I LOVE IT AS MUCH AS YOU DO. SHE TOLD ME THAT THERE WILL BE HARDLY ANY ROMANCE, AND ARCEE IS, LIKE, 25, SO HER AND RAPH WOULDN'T WORK. I HOPE YA ENJOY, AND SEND ALL PRAISE TO MY AWESOME FRIEND!**

April stalked into Donatello's lab with an air of irritated determination. What she was looking for stood by Donnie's desk, and looked up at her when she walked in.

"Hello, Metalhead," said April.

The robot turtle gave a few tiny clicks and bleeps of greeting. This creation of Donnie's was a real mystery to… everyone, actually. It was oddly sentient in some way, and Donnie even seemed to have conversations with the turtle-bot, even though Metalhead's computer-like talk was pretty much Greek to everyone else.

April grabbed a certain game control, and a microphone head piece. "C'mon," she said, walking out of the lab, the sounds of wirring, and metal on concrete confirming that Metalhead was following her. She took one last glance around the empty lab, the sick feeling in her stomach only heightening how badly she just wanted all the boys home, before she shut the lab doors behind her.

"Ok," April said to herself, and, by extension, to Metalhead. "So I'm not allowed to go up top." She stomped her foot slightly. "But there is no way I am going to leave the guys. I know there's something wrong and I'm gonna find out what."

The human girl knelt in front of the TV. "Now, how did Donnie work this thing?"

Splinter had hardly ever hit upon a situation where he found it hard to meditate. And this particular situation was not exactly an exception.

Not _exactly_.

The mutant rat found himself absently thinking of the call from his third eldest son, underneath the calm serenity he knew so well. Perhaps Splinter had a gift… or perhaps since they were his sons… or perhaps it was just Donatello, but Splinter had always been able to tell when they were lying. It wasn't too hard, actually. They were generally horrible liars anyway; Leonardo didn't like lying, Raphael became overly nervous when he lied, Donatello had trouble hiding his feelings in general, and Michelangelo was just too honest to ever pull off a lie.

Donatello had said he and his brothers were fine. And there really wasn't any reason to disbelieve him. But Splinter knew there was something more. Obviously. What had he said…?

_"It's really complicated…"_

Yes, of course there was something more. The nervousness and hesitation in Donatello's voice said as much. And Splinter was determined to find out what it was that was keeping his sons from coming home.

They were not 'fine'. That's what all of Splinter's instincts were telling him. His sons were not fine.

Splinter breathed in and out evenly. This was defeating the whole purpose of the meditation.

And what kind of instinct was telling him this? His true instincts? Or that of a concerned father?

Again, Splinter breathed evenly. Gently, he cleared his thoughts, and again sank into calm and serenity.

To her surprise, April found Metalhead's controls to be fairly easy, in the walking, turning way. But if anything decided to come out and attack the small turtle bot, then April could only hope that Donnie wouldn't have a heart attack over it. That is, if Donnie could even come back to find out…

"Ugh, can't this thing go any faster?" April maneuvered the little bot around the New York City alleyways. It was a little hard to see everything from the television point of view of a three foot tall robot. "I wonder what this button does…" Pressing the mysterious button, there was a heavy clattering sound and the end of the alleyway onscreen was coming up a lot faster. April quickly removed her thumb, and Metalhead continued walking at a more orthodox pace.

"Ok, apparently it _can_ go faster. Waterfront, here we come…" April had Metalhead's head turn a full 360°. No one was around, except for the local hobo, and that guy never noticed anything. She continued having Metalhead walk forward, and pressed the button. Metalhead broke into a run.

They got to the waterfront soon enough. Pretty much the only being there was Metalhead. April had the turtle bot walk around at a more orthodox pace, peering at the screen. She could hear wind whistling through her headpiece, and a few stray papers onscreen waved as they were blown by it. This is around where Mikey would warn not to go any further, because anyone knew that the quiet was just the calm before the coming storm.

Suddenly, there was the sound of something very powerful powering up, and the area around Metalhead was lit green. April yelped, and had Metalhead run for one of the waterfront warehouses. The little bot pressed itself against the wall, and turned its head towards the source of the light.

April's jaw dropped.

Two green portals had appeared, and fair ways away from each other. Emerging from the left portal was an enormous, grey robot, and honestly the scariest thing April had ever seen (and that was saying a lot). Behind it came another robot, not quite as big as the first, but still enormous. It was navy blue, with gold stripes. Alongside the blue bot was another grey one, a lot thinner, but just as tall as the navy one, with red streaks. Was it wearing… high heels?

From the right portal came another enormous robot, almost as tall as the grey one. This one, however, was more creative in color, seeming mainly red, blue and black. Close after it came a smaller robot, though still very large, both in size and height. It was a dark green. Beside it was a much smaller bot, all yellow, with a few black stripes. It was a lot smaller compared to all the other robots, but to April, it was just as much a giant as everyone else.

"What the heck…?" April leaned in, and had Metalhead's camera zoom forward. She frowned when she saw a dark, barely visible streak come out of the left portal, and enter the right.

"Starscream…?" the green bot said, in a low, masculine voice, that portrayed surprise. The green bot had a gun in place of one of its hands.

The thin robot shifted its high heels, growling something. The yellow bot, who had what looked like double barreled laser guns attached to its arms, gave a couple beeps and wirrs. The thin bot pointed its hand at the yellow bot threateningly. "Silence, scout, before I blast you into oblivion!" the thin bot screeched.

The tall red and blue bot, who was the only one among its (his?) comrades who was seemingly unarmed, placed a hand on the yellow bot's shoulder, looking down at him(?) in a stern manner.

"At ease, Starscream," the giant grey bot said to his thin comrade. His voice was very low, and had a growl in it. The slow calm portrayed in the voice seemed manipulative. "We are not here to fight, only to pass information."

The red and blue bot turned to the grey one. "What is it you want, Megatron?" he said, in a slow, monotonous voice.

"Only to see an old friend," the grey bot replied, sounding a little mocking. "Tell me, Optimus, has it been easy, knowing that you played a part in us finding the Iacon relics?"

The green bot growled. "Stand down, Bulkhead," the red and blue bot ordered. "I ask you again, Megatron, what is it you want?"

Suddenly, something fell from the right portal. Two somethings. A black, feminine looking bot, kicked away a blue one, before jumping to its feet. In one hand was a short sword, in another was a small, silver box.

The three bots who had come from the right portal had scattered in alarm as these two intruders fell from it. The blue bot got to his feet. He was gripping a pair of katanas.

"Karai!"

April jumped to her feet, and ran to the screen, staring with wide eyes. She knew that voice. "_Leo_?"

Suddenly, April's view was marred by static, and Metalhead appeared to have been grabbed from behind. April grabbed the controls, which had been limp in her hands as she had been watching the scene, and spun the turtle bot around. A half a dozen Kraang-droids were examining Metalhead with interest (if Kraang could even portray interest).

"No!" April yelled, frantically pressing random buttons on the controls. One of the Kraang-droids was shot by Metalhead's laser gun. Another was torched by a flame thrower. Then, April saw a few tiny, blue explosives emerge from the turtle bot. As they hit the last of the Kraang droids, her view was covered in static as the shock and blast wave threw the turtle bot backwards.

When the static cleared, April could see glowing, green ooze covering most of her view. Mutagen.

Breathing heavily as her heart beat, April had Metalhead stand up. Most of the ooze was clearing from Metalhead's camera eyes, and the giant robots now seemed to be in a full fledged war. The blue bot with Leo's voice was swinging his katanas at the black, female bot. The black bot was fighting back, pretty well for only being able to fight back one handed.

Then, the silver box fell from the black bot's hand. For April, it seemed to be happening in slow motion. As soon as it hit the ground, there was a flash.

According to the screen, Metalhead was no more.

**A/N HardyGal: FINALLY this torturous chapter is OVER! It took FOREVER for me to write. I really want to bring Splinter into this somehow, but I'm not very good at writing him. Heck, Optimus Prime is easier to write than Splinter. By the way, this is set after Transformers Prime episode Alpha/Omega, and after TMNT '12 episode Karai's Vendetta.**


	7. Preparation

**A/N HardyGal: You all asked (really hard), and I delivered. I do not own TMNT, because otherwise they'd be my bros, I don't own TFP, because otherwise Smokescreen would be my partner, and Leofan221 is epic.**

"As Second in Command to the Decepticons, I welcome you aboard the Nemesis." Dreadwing's powerful voice echoed a bit in through the halls as Karai, Shredder, Dogpound and Fishface came through the groundbridge.

Shredder felt very odd after the sudden transportation, but he kept his composure. Xever and Bradford weren't so discrete. Xever groaned, and Bradford looked as though he were trying to keep from hurling.

Karai looked around the dark halls in a bored manner. "Fun. Wide open spaces, fresh air…" She cut off as a tall, thin bot, with rather long arms, very dark purple paint job, and no face, approached slowly. "Who's this?" For the first time since she'd met this new alien robot species, Karai actually started to feel a bit uneasy as the bot stared at her with its faceless, black visor.

The faceless bot looked from Karai, down to the Shredder and the two mutants. It then turned to Megatron. Its visor flashed, showing soundwaves. Karai inclined her head in surprise as her own voice played, with a bit of a robotic zing in it. _"Who's this?"_

Starscream indicated from Karai to the visored bot in an impatient manner. "Femme, Soundwave. Soundwave, some new allies, all hum- organic." He cut off 'human', after glancing at Xever and Bradford.

'Soundwave' pointed a long finger at Karai, but the kunoichi didn't make a move. "Indeed, this is one of the humans who were caught in the Assimilator shockwave," said Megatron, seeming to understand what the ever silent bot seemed to be asking.

Karai smirked a little, for some reason amused that Megatron just assumed that the 'neutrals' had been human before their transformation.

"Enough talk." Shredder stepped forward, looking up at the enormous grey robot. "Tell us how we might aid you in retrieving your trinket so we might be out of each others business."

Megatron looked down at the armor-clad ninja. "Patience, human. You shall receive your payment in due time, for that is doubtless all you care about."

"I care for nothing," Shredder replied. "Other than exacting revenge against those who wronged me."

Karai cast a glance at her father.

The leader of the Decepticons chuckled. "Delightful. We seem to be quite alike, you and I."

Suddenly, another bot, slightly shorter than the rest, with a bright red paint job, came walking into the room, the door automatically opening with a hiss, and shutting as he entered. "I heard tell of some new allies on board," the bot said, in a very smooth and suave British accent. "Is this true, my lor- Oh, mama…" The red bot raised a metal eyebrow at Karai.

"Yes, yes, new allies," Starscream said, for some reason sounding rather agitated. "But don't get your hopes up, Knock Out. The femme is just an assimilated human."

The red bot, whom Starscream had called 'Knock Out', turned on the thin bot, red eyes narrowed. "Hello, Screamer," he said sardonically. "I see that you have finally come crawling back to our master, seeing as you aren't in my med-bay again. Assuming Lord Megatron isn't simply waiting to throw you in the Pits."

Starscream glared. "I would be willing to go there of my own accord, if only to be pitted against you."

"Oh, I think I would stand a much better chance than you," Knock Out retorted. He pointed a claw at the slice in Starscream's arm, the one Karai had given him. "What's the matter? You can't even face up against an _assimilated_ human femme?"

"Why, you earthbound-"

Starscream was cut off as Megatron said, "Silence, both of you."

The red bot bowed, one hand behind his back. "Yes, my liege." Knock Out flashed a winning smile at the girl-turned-femme before retreating to do whatever Decepticon medics did in their spare time. "I would have that looked at, Starscream," he said, before the door hissed shut behind him.

"So," Karai said. "What's the plan?"

"Patience, youngling," Megatron said. He seemed to be smirking, and Karai felt as though she was being mocked. "First comes the terms, then next we plan."

"You know our terms," Shredder said, sounding impatient. "Karai will assist in the retrieval of your weapon, and you will assist in the capture of those who you call neutrals."

"Yes, of course," Megatron said smoothly. "But of what use are they to you now, really? What damage can you, as a human, inflict on any Cybertronian, assimilated or not?"

Starscream muttered something that sounded like, "Breakdown… Silas… Slagging… T-Cog…"

"Does it matter?" Karai snapped impatiently.

"It is no concern of yours!" Shredder said dangerously, still addressing Megatron. "Nothing matters more than the vendetta against my enemy, and I need the neutrals to find him."

Megatron chuckled. "You have a very little strayed from goal in mind."

Starscream grumbled something about Megatron being one to talk, and the Decepticon leader turned on him. "Let us hope that some will stray from the goal they've so persistently followed."

"Lord Megatron," Dreadwing broke in, having been completely silent through most of the conversation. "Might I have a word with you?"

Megatron's optics narrowed, but he turned to his second in command. Karai folded her arms, and waited.

"Master Shredder," Bradford said slowly, cautiously. "I have to say, I don't think that these robots are trustworthy."

"A thought that has been on my mind as well, Bradford," Shredder said sharply. The dog mutant cringed a little. "Karai," the Foot leader said after a moment's thought. "Keep your senses alert, and be prepared for anything."

Karai nodded, which was as close as she could get to a bow at this height. "Yes, father."

"Lord Megatron," Dreadwing said in a low voice. "With all due respect, is it wise to trust this assimilated human femme?"

"And her fellow organic freaks," Starscream added sharply. Megatron cast one glance at the traitorous seeker, and Starscream cringed, backing away.

"I never suggested trust, Dreadwing," said Megatron, turning back to his SIC. "In fact, there is only ever going to be one being, bot or otherwise, who I will trust."

_"Lord Megatron,"_ Soundwave played.

"Thank you, Soundwave," Megatron stated smoothly to his ever loyal third in command. "And I trust myself to be prepared for any treachery these organics might commit. Though I doubt they can do any damage. The femme is only one. And the organics can do nothing to us."

Starscream scoffed silently.

_"Assist in the capture of those who you call neutrals,"_ Soundwave played another sound byte, this one of the human who called himself the very Decepticon name of Shredder.

Megatron seemed to be contemplating this. "Yes, Soundwave. The other assimilated organics might be of use to our cause. Such as the one whom you reported had red optics, Dreadwing." The navy jet nodded a little.

"You said yourself that the assimilated femme is only one, and the organics are useless," Starscream said impatiently. "How would they be useful in the capture of the neutrals? Or even in the retrieval of the relic?"

"And yet, the femme defeated you, Starscream," Megatron said. "Even with your aerial mode."

Starscream turned away again, seeming a little pained about something.

"If they prove helpful in planning the theft of the relic, they might prove useful as allies in capturing the neutrals," Dreadwing said slowly. "It is only logical that they would know more about them, seeing as they are clearly enemies."

"Indeed, Dreadwing," said Megatron. "You are a wise second in command." He added the last part just to spite Starscream.

The Decepticons turned back to the organics. _"What's the plan?"_ Soundwave played.

Karai eyed the robot that walked by her. This one has wings, but otherwise, looked exactly like the others. Vehicons and Eradicons Megatron called them. Drones, expendable, and usually useless. That's how Karai felt about most of the Foot honestly, which were pretty much Storm Troopers without guns.

Shredder stood straight and tall on the metal table, while Bradford on Xever had to stick to the floor and avoid getting stepped on.

"My plan is simple," the transformed kunoichi said, snapping back to Megatron, Dreadwing and Starscream, who also stood at the table. "If the Autobots use the same kind of portals, it stands to reason theirs leads to their headquarters."

"Of course…" Megatron probably would've said 'duh' if he were a human teenager. "But I know what you are thinking, femme, and it will not work. The only other Cybertronian who has been able to infiltrate a groundbridge recently is Arcee, and she was in her vehicular mode. Something which you have not yet acquired." **(A/N HardyGal: Correct me if I'm wrong. It's just Arcee is the only one I remember going through an enemy groundbridge, except for Starscream, but that hasn't happened yet… Bumblebee doesn't count, cause he just stole the relic and left, he didn't enter the Nemesis)**

"I don't need any modes other than stealth and speed," Karai replied cooly. "I think that I will succeed as well as this Arcee."

"It is not possible," Megatron said, sounding very impatient as he loomed over Karai. Shredder unsheathed his blades threateningly, and while Megatron seemed initially amused, he stepped back. "No one has been fast enough to infiltrate a groundbridge, except for Autobot Blurr, and he is offline. Unless you can move as fast as he did, I suggest you think of a more strategized plan."

Starscream let out a short scoff, and quickly cut off as he was turned to. "Do you have something to say, Starscream?" Megatron asked. "Don't be shy…"

The winged bot shifted his high-heels, seeming to be thinking. Then, he muttered, "Red energon."

"What?" said Karai.

"Red energon," Starscream repeated impatiently. "When refined, it gives the drinker to move faster than anything in the whole known universe. Even our offlined Blurr would not have been able to compete with it."

"You waste your words, speaking that which cannot be acquired," Megatron snapped. "Unless you happen to have red energon, or know where it may be acquired, I suggest you offline your vocals."

Starscream smirked a little. "As it happens, Lord Megatron… I do."

**A/N HardyGal: Ok, I have a height chart (sorta) for Karai and the turtles because for some reason it's really bugging me. Karai is actually taller than everyone except Donnie when they're organic, but that would be weird now that she's Cybertronian. Ok, Mikey is about as tall as Bumblebee (who we all know is pretty small for a mech), and Karai also reaches around that height (she's taller than Arcee, but not by much). Leo is about as tall as Smokescreen, while Raph is slightly shorter. Donnie, I've decided, is slightly shorter than Bulkhead.**

**I want to thank all of you who've reviewed. It's honestly one of the big reasons why I'm still writing. I see that a lot of you want to kill Arcee, but be aware that she's been through a lot. I honestly don't really see why she would be suspicious of a youngling, but that's Arcee. She's lost two partners, she's a scout, a soldier, has been shot at, tortured and betrayed.**

**I'm sorry for taking forever in writing. Crossovers are hard… But so much fun! Speaking of which, check out Leofan221's fanfiction, Of Guardians and Turtles! It's an Avengers/TMNT fic, and totally awesome, I assure you! (To Ardent Aspen; do you really think I'd kill our turtle bot after that episode…? ;) To The Prime Writer; Thanks for the advice. It's just, Shredder is somehow harder to write than even Megatron. Hopefully he had some role in this chapter)**


	8. Tension

**Remember here, guys. **

**A.) This is all my friend, HardyGal's writing. I am just posting it 'cus I adore her, and her parents won't let her get a profile here. **

**And B.) To check out my new poll on my profile when you're done reading! ;)**

"Fully Cybertronian… Doesn't leave much room for organic… No room actually… Might need to do more scans… DNA… Most likely any biological solution would be null and void… Need to reverse affects, duh!"

Donnie was doing that 'thing', or at least that's what his brothers called it. It was very late, and even teenagers who patrolled the city at night didn't stay up past two o'clock in the morning (except for that one time)… Jack, Miko and Raf had already been taken home, and Donnie was pouring over the scans that Ratchet had taken (Mikey's scans had taken a lot longer than necessary, which was ironic seeing as he wanted them over with as soon as possible).

Despite not knowing Cybertronian (yet; the purple turtle-turned-bot had promised himself he would figure it out), Donatello understood the scans well enough. And, as was usual with him, though he was normally alone and in his lab back home when he did it, Donnie was muttering.

"Can't expel technology if there's nothing left after… Ugh, why does everything eventually have to be so hard…?"

Leo was practicing katas. Surprisingly, this large, new body wasn't as clumsy as he thought it would be, though it was much louder than he would have liked.

"So, um… does he always do this?" Smokescreen was leaning on the wall, gesturing to Donnie.

"You have no idea," said Leo, concentrating hard on his katas.

Wheeljack and Bulkhead were doing combat training in some other room, with Bumblebee, Optimus Prime was at the giant computer, Ratchet was in what the Autobots called the vault hall, running some scans on the thing that had transformed the turtles. Arcee was watching Optimus Prime. While the female bot seemed cool and relaxed, Leo was trying his best to avoid looking at her.

"Donnie, could you please tone down your geek thing?" Raph snapped, both he and Mikey (who was pretty much asleep, leaning against the wall) having been watching Donnie mutter for the past half hour.

"Shush," Donnie replied sharply, then resumed his muttering.

Raph groaned. Leo let out a sigh, and continued his katas. "Hey, you're pretty good," Smokescreen commented. "That's a fighting style some bots could stand to learn."

Leo paused, and shrugged. "It's a fighting style that's not exactly handed out freely," he said, performing another kata. "And there's often more to it than just fighting."

"So guessed," Smokescreen sighed. "That's what my mentor taught me. Alpha Trion was a great guy, but I can't say I always understood him."

"I completed my scans on the relic," said Ratchet, walking into the room.

Donnie suddenly turned. He had that eureka look. "A solution derived from both technology and biology…! That just might work… A technological form of retro-mutagen…" He then seemed to realize that Ratchet was standing there. "Do you have any scans of the technology that assimilated us?"

Ratchet grumbled.

Optimus Prime suddenly spoke as the computer beeped. "We have received a message… from Megatron."

"Megatron?" said Leo, replacing his katanas. "That… doesn't sound like a good guy."

"He's not," Arcee said grimly.

"Megatron is the dark lord, leader of the Decepticons," said Smokescreen, himself looking rather serious. "It's partly because of him that we can't live back home on Cybertron anymore. Yeah, definitely not a good guy."

"Megatron?" Wheeljack came walking into the main room with Bumblebee and Bulkhead. "What's ol' bucket-head up to this time?"

"What does the message say, Optimus?" asked Ratchet.

Optimus Prime was silent for a few seconds. "Megatron wishes to trade information. Information of the Assimilator, which will…" He cut off.

"What's wrong?" asked Leo.

The tall bot seemed to frown. "Megatron says the information will prove useful to you. You and your brothers." He turned to the four turtles-turned-robot (Raph had smacked Mikey on the head to wake him up). "He says, specifically, the four assimilated organics."

"How…?" Arcee said suddenly. "How could Megatron know that they're not real Cybertronians?"

"Dreadwing only just saw these guys come into the groundbridge with us," Bulkhead spoke up. "He seemed pretty clueless then."

"What else does the message say, Optimus?" Ratchet interrupted.

Optimus turned back to the screen. "Oddly, Megatron does not specify what he wants in exchange for this information," he said. "He wants to meet at the location of the last Iacon relic."

"Looks like another visit to the Big Apple," said Bulkhead.

"Perhaps not," said Arcee. "Optimus, how do we know Megatron is even telling the truth about this information? Also, don't you think it's a little suspicious he's asking for nothing in return?"

"Right on all counts, Arcee," replied Optimus. "But we still do not know if Megatron is lying, and we might yet gain more information on the Assimilator. And perhaps find out how exactly Megatron knows the true nature of our young friends. Bulkhead, Bumblebee, you will come with me. And proceed with caution."

Leo had been keeping silent throughout, listening intently (Mikey had fallen back to sleep against the wall; it really was late), and finally spoke up. "What about us?" he asked, Raph and Donnie standing behind him.

"You four will remain here," Optimus said simply. "Ratchet, activate the groundbridge."

The red and white medi-bot nodded, and tapped on a smaller screen, before pulling a lever. The portal hall fired up, and Donnie's eye ridge shot upwards interestedly.

Leo sighed silently. He had been expecting as much, recognizing the underlining of "you're too inexperienced" and "it's too dangerous" in Optimus' simple words. But that didn't mean he wasn't just a bit disappointed. Honestly, this was probably the most interesting thing that had happened to them all week.

Karai eyed the enormous equivalent to a booster shot in the red bot's clawed hand. "And you're sure this won't kill me?"

"Please," Starscream said. That bot seemed to be in a permanent bad temper. "It is only the tiniest dose of red energon, not even enough to last a full four minutes."

The thin bot had revealed the evidently secret location to his hideout to his leader, where he kept… a dead clone of himself (weird), and large jar of a red liquid that Karai assumed was red energon.

Now, Knock Out was handing Karai the large robot equivalent of a needle, which contained barely half the red energon they Decepticons had retrieved.

"Plus," Knock Out said smoothly. "You're full Cybertronian. Unless some of your organic contamination is still in there somewhere, you ought to be perfectly fine."

"You'd better hope so," Karai said, taking the injector. "Or else my last moments will also be your own."

Knock Out seemed to quaver for just a moment, but he simply raised a metal eyebrow and said nothing. "Well, then. I just wish you luck."

Karai rolled her eyes.

"Are you ready, young femme?" Megatron questioned, standing next to Soundwave and Dreadwing.

The kunoichi-turned-robot turned to smirk at the enormous warlord. "Born that way."

Megatron chuckled. "You have quite a devious mind for such a young frame. Speaking of… Starscream!" The high heeled bot flinched. "You and Dreadwing will accompany me."

Starscream blinked. "Me… and Dreadwing?"

Megatron seemed annoyed. "Of course, fool, did you think I meant Soundwave? Just because I am reconsidering your offlining, Starscream, does not mean I will risk leaving you with my crew."

Karai watched this conversation impassively. "Karai…" She turned to where her father stood on the metal table. Even the smallest figure in the group, except for Xever (he and Bradford still stood on the ground), Oroku Saki could still make his threatening presence known. "I hope you succeed in your task."

Karai nodded. "I will, father."

"Soundwave," said Megatron. The silent bot's visor blinked, and a green portal appeared. Megaton stepped towards the portal, then turned to Karai. "Whenever you are ready." Then he, Dreadwing and Starscream disappeared into the portal.

Taking a deep breath, Karai plunged the injector into her arm. She shuddered as the red liquid disappeared from the canister, and a chill entered her veins (tubes?). Taking a chance, Karai ran through the portal.

Instantly, she came out into the familiar New York City night.

Karai walked past the frozen forms of Megatron and his followers, staring at them. "Bizarre…" So this is what it was like to move at light speed.

Then remembering that she had a job to do, Karai ran towards the opposite portal, running past the tall red and blue bot, the wide green bot, the small yellow bot, and disappeared into the green depths.

Karai came into a brightly lit, large room. Or it would be brightly lit if Karai's heightened senses didn't reveal the lights to be blinking rapidly (or slowly in her case). Wow, this was amazing.

The kunoichi smirked. She was in.

She was admittedly mildly surprised to see Leo and his brothers standing in the room, though there wasn't really any reason to be so. There were about four other bots in the room, but Karai wasn't interested in them. She realized just how much power she held in her hands at this moment. This was her moment to take revenge, not just on Leo, but on their Sensei, the man who had caused the death of her mother.

_'No,'_ she thought to herself. _'Finish the job, then you can take care of them.'_

Moving swiftly onwards, Karai searched for this… Assimilator. Small, by Cybertronian standards, as Knock Out described it, in the shape of a cube. Should be in a vault of some sort, and the Decepticons couldn't really help there as they had never infiltrated the Autobot base. But in time, though less than three seconds in the real paced world, Karai found a hall filled with enormous vaults, with convenient windows.

Karai peered into each vault curiously. There were many interesting objects in here, in the sense that they looked so benign, and yet they were important enough to be locked away into their individual vaults. Karai raised a metal eyebrow at a female robot, trapped in a frozen state, a look of surprise and franticness etched on her face. And Karai could tell that the robot probably wouldn't be moving at all even if the kunoichi was processing things at a normal rate.

_'Wonder what you did that caused the Autobots to lock you away.'_

Finally, she found what she needed. Karai tried pressing a button to open the vault, but she found this to be painfully slow. With a shout of frustration, Karai drew her tantō, and sliced at the door, cutting clean through it.

With this revelation, Karai was quick to infiltrate the vault and grab the cube.

As she made her way carelessly back to the portal, Karai cast one quick glance at the transformed turtles. "Be seeing you," she muttered with a smirk.

Then, the lights stopped blinking. The sense of limbo Karai had been feeling fell away, and she found herself at the receiving end of eight stares.

"Who are you?" the blue and pink female bot was the first to speak, her hands transforming into guns, glaring at Karai threateningly. The two male bots brought out their own blasters, while the red and white make bot backed away slowly.

"I think Arcee asked you a question, sweetheart," the white, red and green bot said, in a low, fairly confident and laid back voice.

Karai smirked, and turned on the turtles-turned-robots. They had all instinctively gone for their weapons, and seemed to be evaluating her. "Hey there, Leo," Karai said.

Leo seemed to falter. "K-Karai…?"

Flashing the Assimilator with a grin, Karai turned and ran towards the portal.

**A/N HardyGal: Climbing up to the moment where everything explodes! And everything starts happening! Sort of. FYI, there will be drabbling, sort of filler chapters, just because I want to. Featuring things like, katana fights! Leo vs. Wheeljack! Street racing (possibly)! Because I cannot believe Smokescreen would never have gone street racing. Speaking of which, I seriously need some ideas for the turtle's altmodes. No suggestions for Donnie if you please, cause I already have something planned. Come to think of it, ideas for Karai will be helpful too…**

**I am so, so sorry for the slow updates. My brain gets lazy.**


	9. Precipitation

**I'M SURE HARDYGAL WOULD HAVE SOME WITTY COMMENT TO PUT HERE, BEFORE WE GET STARTED, BUT I CAN'T SPEAK FOR HER, AND ALL THAT...**

**ENJOY, AND REMEMBER THIS IS ALL HARDYGAL'S WRITING! I JUST HAVE THE HONOR OF KNOWING HARDYGAL, AND BEING ABLE TO POST HER STUFF...**

**~LF221**

Leo didn't quite know what he was doing, but he acted instinctively. He had a thousand questions in his mind, such as how had Karai infiltrated the base, why was Karai a robot, why did Karai want the Assimilator, how did Karai even know it existed… All pretty much relating to Karai. But he didn't have time to think through these questions.

As Master Splinter said, there was a time to act, and a time to think.

And Leo acted.

Sheathing one katana, Leo ran, and launched himself forward, trying to grab the Assimilator from Karai's hand. The Foot kunoichi snatched her hand out of the way, and drew her tantō. Leo blocked as she swung at him, pressing back on the tantō hard. He yelped as she suddenly stepped back through the portal. The two of them fell through, and Karai kicked Leo away as he almost fell on top of her.

Leo quickly recovered, drawing his second katana. Dang it, that kick had actually hurt a bit… Apparently, robots weren't quite as invulnerable as they seemed.

Subconsciously aware of Optimus Prime and his bots staring at him in shock, Leo shouted, "Karai!"

Karai - gosh, _Karai_ - turned on him, golden eyes flashing. "Get the relic back through the groundbridge!" shouted a deep, gravely voice. "We'll take care of the Autobots!"

As soon as Leonardo and the mysterious femme disappeared through the groundbridge, Ratchet closed it just then, having been inching towards the groundbridge controls. "Scrap!" the medic snapped.

"Leo!" Raph shouted.

"That was Karai?" Mikey said incredulously.

Ignoring the young Assimilated bots' panic, Arcee commed Optimus. "Optimus," she said grimly. "We've just been infiltrated."

::So noted,:: Optimus replied. ::Arcee, standby… We may need backup.::

"No!" Leo gasped when an enormous laser pulse nearly clipped his shoulder. As bad a shot these bad guys seemed to be, that probably could have been fatal.

Deciding not to dwell on this, Leo ran after Karai. Stopping just between the portal and Karai, Leo instinctively kicked the kunoichi backwards in the chest. "Karai, you don't want to do this," said Leo, crossing his katanas. "You have no idea what these guys are capable of."

Karai eyed him maliciously, and swung her tantō, which Leo blocked. "And I'm sure you're an expert after being a robot for only a couple hours," Karai said.

"You aren't one to talk," Leo retorted.

"Touché." Karai broke the block, and swept him off his feet. Leo rolled to the side as she brought the tantō down in a deadly arc, and jumped to his feet.

"I have yet to try out this new body in combat," said Karai, examining her arms. Then, a black mask covered her mouth. "I guess I can postpone my mission for a quick fight."

"Just give me the cube, Karai!" Leo snapped.

"Nah." She attacked.

Leo found it a lot more awkward to fight Karai, being a couple feet taller than her for once, but the fight was just as high intensity, and both still retained their skill. Only instead of playing, Karai was really intent on taking him down _right_ now.

"Femme!" the large grey Decepticon roared, he and his followers having begun a gun fight with Optimus Prime and his bots. "Make safe the relic!"

"Sorry, Leo," said Karai. "Have to cut this short." She stabbed at his abdomen, but Leo caught the short sword between his katanas. Karai grunted, tugging on the caught blade. The kunoichi glanced up at the turtle-bot, both caught in a temporary stale-mate. Then she pulled on the tantō, kicking Leo in the abdomen. Leo huffed, releasing his hold on the blade. Karai leapt back, still clutching the cube tightly in her other hand.

"So persistent, Leo," she growled.

"I can't let you take that, Karai," Leo replied, meeting her acidic glare.

"You'll have to." She ran toward him, making to leap over his head. Leo reached out and grabbed her wrist as she jumped over him. Karai crashed to the ground. Then she realized the absence of weight in her left hand. Both assimilated bots watched the cube fall as though in slow motion, knowing there was no chance to catch it.

When it struck the ground, the cube flashed, then all bots in the vicinity were blinded by shockwave.

Donnie cried out, a sudden pain flashing in his chest. His heart - or as the scans so called, spark - felt as though it was being squeezed hard.

Something... Someone... He could feel their surprise, fear. And he knew where they were. They were where Leo and Karai had gone.

"Donnie…?" The purple bot was aware of a hand on his shoulder, and filed away the concern in Raph's voice as ammunition to tease him with later.

"Bro, you okay?" Mikey asked, he and Raph leaning over to look at their curled over brother. Donnie looked up, red eyes locking onto the ground bridge controls. His brothers leapt back as the purple bot pushed past them and activated the portal, using the last coordinates.

"Donatello, what are you doing?" Ratchet demanded.

"There's something out there, I gotta find him!" Donnie replied, running into the open 'bridge. When he came through, the lock on his spark became stronger. As though a string was pulling him toward some unknown source.

He ran toward it, ignoring the dazed bots about him, ignoring Leo's surprised shout. It came from beside a warehouse. When Donnie rounded the corner, he skidded to a stop. A familiar little bot lay there, barely bigger than he used to be.

"Metalhead?" Donnie murmured, stunned. The turtle-bot sat up, looking about him, then up at the turtle-turned-robot.

_*Creator?*_ the little bot canted his helm to the side, the familiar beeps and wirrs spilling from his motionless mouth. *_Why are you a robot?*_ he asked innocently.

"Metalhead... You're Cybertronian!" Donnie stuttered. He could just sense it, the little bot had the spark of a Cybertronian! "The Assimilator must have gone off again. But Karai had it. Did she drop it? Is it damaged? What do you remember?"

_*April sent me to find you-*_ Metalhead began.

"April?" Donnie interrupted. "Is she okay?"

_*Yeah. And I was watching the bot that sounds like Leo fight a female bot. She dropped a cube, and I fell into recharge,*_ Metalhead finished. He pushed himself to his feet, then trotted over to Donnie and wrapped his arms around the now considerably taller turtle's leg.

"Wow… Ok…" There were a million questions running through Donnie's mind, such as, why did the emotional tug on his spark lead him to, of all things, Metalhead; how was it possible that Metalhead could even become Cybertronian via Assimilator if he wasn't even organic to begin with; what was April thinking, and could she still see what was going on through Metalhead's eyes.

Filing these questions away, Donnie reached down and picked up the now tiny (to him) turtle-bot, holding him to his chest. "We have to go back," Donnie said, talking more to himself.

Leo had been very surprised when his brother had come bursting out of a groundbridge, but still in a daze from the sudden flashing shockwave. Grunting, Leo pressed a hand to his head, still holding his katana. He could hear the other bots already starting to get to their feet; sure, this probably happened to them all the time.

Lifting his head, Leo saw the Assimilator lying harmlessly on the ground. The green lines on the cube, which had been shining like no one's business moments before, dulled to their normal state.

Getting to his knees, Leo reached for the Assimilator, only for an enormous sword to cut the ground inches from his hand. Startled, he rolled onto his back, glancing upwards. The enormous, freaky spiked grey bot, who Leo automatically assumed to be Megatron, stood above him, chuckling.

Metal brows furrowing, Leo launched himself to his feet, kicking Megatron in his midsection. This didn't seem to do much more than cause the large bot to stumble back, but that was all Leo needed as he turned around, sheathing one of his katanas, and grabbing the Assimilator. He gasped in shock as a laser clipped his shoulder; a few of those 'expendable Vehicons troopers' Bulkhead had mentioned awhile ago came pouring from a portal, shooting at everything that was large, metal, and moved.

Leo held the Assimilator to his chest, deflected a few shots aimed at him with his katana. Suddenly, there was a loud battle cry, and Leo grunted as he quickly spun around and blocked the enormous sword Megatron held in his mismatched hand.

"You have spark, little one," Megatron said. "But even if you were not nothing but an assimilated human, you would still stand no chance against me."

Leo was just trying not to be pushed into the ground. Sure, Shredder had a foot or so on him when he had been a turtle, but this was ridiculous. This guy was almost twice his size, not mention a lot stronger, and actually familiar with his own body and strength. And possibly a few thousand years older.

Suddenly, a clawed hand punched into Leo's midsection, knocking him back. The flat of Megatron's blade smacked into Leo's head, and the young ninja reeled slightly. He was just able to block a second swing, but Megatron disarmed him effectively, before aiming another blow with his clawed hand, which Leo still managed to block with his arm.

Megatron seemed almost bored as he managed to knock Leo off his feet, and placed a heavy metal foot on his chest.

The Decepticon warlord looked down at the small blue bot struggling beneath his pede. Though Megatron knew that the human had stood no chance against him, a gladiator of the Pits of Kaon, he was impressed with what resistance the youngling had shown. Dreadwing was right, these Assimilated organics were not normal.

"Let me go!" the bot shouted angrily, kicking and squirming.

"Yes, quite a lot of spark. It would seem a waste of potential to cut your life short," Megatron said, relatively ignoring him, looking at the sword (which Dreadwing had lent him in absence of his built in blade, cannon and the Dark Star Saber). "And I only wanted one thing anyway."

The mech's optics widened, and his helm turned upward, looking at the Assimilator, which he'd dropped. Suddenly, Karai came, a black and silver streak, scooping up the Iacon relic. She turned, waving the relic, obviously smirking beneath the black battle mask.

"Karai!" the blue bot shouted, sounding angry and desperate at the same time.

_'So they have been acquainted,'_ Megatron noted.

Suddenly, there was a familiar battle cry, and Megatron felt a fist smash into his faceplates. The warlord stumbled back as he received a few more blows, before he blocked Optimus Prime's next blow with his sword.

"The assimilated ones have nothing to do with this war, Megatron," Prime said, his battle mask covering the lower half of his faceplates. "Leave them be."

"On the contrary, Optimus," Megatron said smoothly. "They might just tilt the scales in it."

As soon as Megatron had been knocked off him, Leo rolled onto his side, and watched with shock and fascination as Optimus Prime and Megatron fought in what seemed to be quite a personal battle.

Then, he remembered Karai. Quickly scooping up his katana, Leo got to his feet, and ran after her, as she ran towards the portal, from which more and more Vehicons were coming out, at this point seeming more than Bumblebee and Bulkhead could handle as Optimus continued fighting Megatron, and the two winged Decepticons also fired at the two lone Autobots in addition to the Vehicon's fire.

"Karai!" Leo shouted again, out of pure habit. He knew she wasn't going to stop. Suddenly, he ran smack-dab into one of the Vehicons. He stumbled back, and the faceless bot in front of him shook his head a little as he obviously tried to get his wits back to him, before aiming a triangle shaped cannon built into his arm.

Leo acted on an instinct formed from fighting Kraang-droids for months. He sliced off the cannon, and kicked the bot aside. Then he saw, with dismay, that he wouldn't be able to catch up with Karai now.

::Ratchet,:: Optimus commed. ::We require backup.::

"Coming, Optimus!" The medic got ready to reopen the groundbridge. As Smokescreen, Wheeljack and Arcee prepared to go through, Raph suddenly spoke up.

"Hey, we want to go too," he said, Mikey nodding fervently in agreement.

"Ep ep," Ratchet said sharply. "Optimus told you to stay put. It's bad enough that your brothers have suddenly disappeared!"

"Exactly!" Raph snapped. "I'm not just gonna stick around here, especially if there's a fight going on!"

"Leo and Donnie need our help!" Mikey put in.

"Ratchet…" Arcee said pointedly, anxious to get to the fight.

"Optimus said stay here, and you are going to stay here, and that's final!" With that declaration, Ratchet activated the 'bridge.

Wheeljack and Arcee transformed, driving through. Smokescreen pointed at Mikey and Raph. "Next time, 'k? I'll keep an optic out for your bros!" With that, he swiftly transformed, and sped in through the groundbridge.

Ratchet didn't notice Raph and Mikey exchange a look. He did notice them rush past him. "Hey!" He quickly shut down the groundbridge.

Which the two young bots had disappeared into a second before he'd done so. "Scrap, not again!" Ratchet pinched the space between his optics. "Younglings…" The old Autobot threw his servos in the air. "I give up."

"No!" Leo shouted, as Karai came right up to the green portal.

He kept running. Even if he couldn't catch up to her, stopping would be giving up, and that was not Leo's style.

However, he did stop dead when a very familiar purple robot used a staff to block Karai's way, and knock her back. Karai fell back, skidded for a bit, and backflipped back onto her feet, her eyes wide with surprise and anger.

"Donnie!" Leo ran up to his brother, his own eyes wide with surprise.

"Oh, hi Leo," Donnie replied with a small smile.

"What are you _doing_ he-?" Leo cut off as a few Vehicons turned their fire on him and Donnie. The two brothers dodged the pulses, and took them out.

"I was finding _him_," said Donnie, jerking his head back obscurely.

Leo frowned a little at the unclear answer, when there was a small, short, mechanical whine. Two little metal hands grasped Donnie's shoulder from behind, and a little metal head peeked out.

"_Metalhead_?" Leo said incredulously.

The tiny bot gave a single thumbs up, with a confirming beep. _*Hello!*_

Before Leo could ask anything, there was a rupture sound, and for what seemed like the tenth time that night, another portal appeared. A blue motorcycle and tri-colored Ferrari came racing through, and transformed into Arcee and Wheeljack, both with their guns out. Just behind them, a tri-colored sportscar with 38s screaming on either door came through, and transformed into Smokescreen, who also had his cannons out.

"Someone call for cleanup?" Wheeljack said with a smirk.

The two separate factions seemed to swiftly regroup, before attacking each other. As Leo and Donnie backed off to try and avoid being caught in the crossfire, Karai could be seen among a few Vehicons.

"You might have your new friends, Leo!" she shouted, drawing her weapon. "But so do I!"

Then, a red form and orange form jumped out from the Autobot groundbridge, just before it extinguished. "Leo!" Mikey shouted enthusiastically, his and Raph's weapons already drawn in readiness. "Donnie!"

Leo was neither ticked off nor upset that all three of his brothers had… well, followed his lead. Simply glad that they were altogether, and back in the game! They'd just unlocked a whole new level.

"And I have my team!" Leo retorted to Karai, pointing his katana. "Turtle…bots, attack!"

"BOOYAKASHA!"

**A/N HardyGal: It's amazing how many cartoons are connected. I swear Kevin Michael Richardson is everywhere… He's Bulkhead in Transformers Prime, Shredder in TMNT '12, Trigon in Teen Titans, Tombstone in Spectacular Spider-Man (and guess who voices Spider-Man in that cartoon… Josh Keaton! Aka Jack Darby!), Sheriff Blubbs in Gravity Falls, J'onn J'onnz in Young Justice… And several others.**

**Same with Nolan North. I love him as Smokescreen in Transformers Prime! He's also Raph. No kidding, Smokey did Raph's voice in the TMNT '07 movie. Don't forget Superboy in Young Justice (and Superman).**

**Jeffery Combs! Gosh, that guy is awesome! Ratchet in Transformers Prime, the Rat King in TMNT '12, the Question in Justice League Unlimited.**

**And holy crap… Did you know that suave voiced Knock Out is voiced by the same guy who does the voice of J. Jonah Jameson in Spectacular Spider-Man. Yeah! THIS GUY WHO YELLS AT EVERYTHING AND ABOUT EVERYTHING voiced the smooth voiced 'Con who uses words like 'repellent'.**

**Anyway, thank you for reading this rant, and being patient as I wrote this chapter. You guys are awesome!**

**Ardent Aspen: Hope you are satisfied with this chapter! Thank you for reviewing every chapter, that means a lot! And now you know what happened to Metalhead… ;)**

**professionalemail101: I'm sorry for not being fast as you would like. But I hope the wait is worth it. And thank you for the alt suggestions!**


	10. Disorientation

**A/N: Leofan221: Here is the next chapter for Y'all! I finally got my lazy butt in gear, and posted this. I did only get it yesterday. Ugh. Anyway...**

**Tell me and HardyGal if you've seen the finale of TMNT, or the premiere of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. If you have, we need to talk. **

**A/N HardyGal: I am a very bad person for making you guys wait this long. I have excuses. School, road trip, original stories for school, and a new obsession with Criminal Minds. Also I've been recapping on The Transformers G1. Double also, a crap ton of writer's block. Seriously, I wrote the first twenty-two paragraphs of this chapter, and then… "Now what? What the heck's gonna happen next?" Usually it takes me at least a month to get my full inspiration back, but this time it took a lot longer. I hope this makes up for the hiatus.**

**I don't own Transformers Prime, or TMNT. Seriously, some crazy scrap would be happening if I did. Leofan221 is awesome.**

"Ha! I found you!" April had been tossing up the lair frantically, trying to find her T-Phone after Metalhead had went offline.

She had to know what had happened to Metalhead, what was going on at the waterfront, and what exactly the boys had got themselves into. Quick dialing Donnie, April held the phone to her ear.

The tone rang two times, before the call was answered in the middle of the third tone. "Uh huh, who is it?"

"Donnie!" April exclaimed, for some reason feeling relieved. "Donnie, we need to talk."

"Um, yeah…!" He was in the middle of a fight, she could tell by his voice. Oddly, though, there didn't seem to be any background noise. "Now is not a great time!"

"Donnie, I sent Metalhead to the waterfront you guys were patrolling…"

"You don't say…?"

"What?"

"Nothing!"

"I sent Metalhead to the waterfront, and I saw something weird!" April was pacing as she talked, her heart pumping in her chest. Something was happening, she didn't know what, and it was driving her crazy. "Like, really weird!"

"Yeah, ok!"

"Don't you want to know what it is?"

Donnie yelped suddenly. "April, I'm not kidding, now isn't a great time!"

"And I'm not kidding, Donnie! Something weird is happening, and I think you know something about it!"

There was no reply, except for a few shouts and grunts as he fought.

April took a deep breath. She might as well get this bombshell over with. "Donnie, I think Metalhead is dead."

"No, he's fine."

"_What_?"

"Aw, man!" Donnie berated himself. "Look, April, I would love to tell you more, you have no idea how much I would love to. But now really is not the time! _What_?"

"What?" April demanded.

"Nothing! April, I'll call you-_Ah_-!"

With that sudden cry of pain, the call went offline.

"Donnie…? Donnie!"

Starscream was just trying to survive. He had only come back to the Decepticons for a few groons, and already he was stuck in a firefight. This had to be that femme's fault! Her enemies really were formidable, even if they had no form of long range weapon. But at least they were occupied with the Vehicons. So Starscream focused his fire on the Autobots.

The seeker was no melee combatant. He was a flyer for Primus' sake, he felt safer from long range. Oh, sure, that brute Dreadwing could use a sword, but unless he was threatened from close range, Starscream stayed as far from a fight as his firing range would allow him to.

So it really was annoying when Starscream felt the wrecking ball suddenly smash into his faceplates. The thin bot flew backwards, and he quickly sat up to see the glowering form of Bulkhead. Starscream silently cursed the slagging Autobot, cursed Megatron, and cursed Silas. What he wouldn't give to be able to fly.

"I never got the chance to ask you, Starscream," the Wrecker ground out, approaching slowly. "What made you come crawling back to Megatron?"

"Who's crawling?" Starscream snapped back, getting to his pedes.

"_You're_ about to be!" Bulkhead charged, his wrecking ball raised above his head.

Starscream aimed an arm missile. "Why not _you_?" And fired.

The Shredder was getting impatient. The tall bot that was called Soundwave, his screen mask kept on blinking, every time another portal activating, into which more and more faceless bots went through.

"What is happening out there?" Shredder demanded of Soundwave. The ever silent robot didn't even look at him.

The leader of the Foot clenched his fist. He had a mixture of emotions among the constant one of rage; concern for Karai, his daughter, the daughter of his Teng Shen. Curiosity as to how these new robot lifeforms worked, and curiosity as to how Karai had been turned into one of them.

Finally, his patience drew to an end. Shredder jumped down from the tall table, right in front of his two followers, who were seeking refuge underneath said table. "Xever. Bradford."

The mutant dog and koi approached warily. They almost recoiled as another drone walked past aimlessly. Shredder ignored it.

"When the next portal comes," Oroku Saki said. "The two of you are to go through it. Report back to me when the portal appears on your end."

"But… Master Shredder-"

"That was not a request, Bradford!" Shredder snapped. "Obey! Both of you!"

All four of them had attacked Karai, who was of course able to hold her own pretty well, but the 'Vehicon troopers' attacked them. The four assimilated ninjas backflipped to avoid the laser fire, and Karai bolted.

Leo sliced the arms and torso of one of the Vehicons, before deflecting the gunfire of another. "Don't let Karai get away!" he shouted.

Raph downed another drone. "I got her!" With a furious shout, Raph charged for the now smaller martial artist. Karai spun around, and allowed her tantō to be caught in the red ninja's sai. With a few quick moves, Raph was on the ground, and Karai was off again.

Donnie got there next, and he could see a different gleam in her golden, white-less eyes. It wasn't mocking or amused, it was dangerous. She had a mission, and he was in her way.

It was a short fight. Karai knocked Donnie aside, where he was accosted by several Vehicons. No sooner had that happened, then Leo ran at Karai with a yell, swinging his swords. Karai blocked, and the two of them ended up in each other's faces again.

"Where's the cube, Karai?" Leo demanded.

Karai's eyes glinted. "It's safe."

"Hey, Leo!" The two rivals' heads quickly turned to see Mikey holding a relatively small cube. He was almost absentmindedly taking down several Vehicons, before waving the cube. "Are you… Are we… Are they looking for this?"

Leo and Karai glanced at each other, before Karai shoved the taller ninja aside, and instantly ran towards Mikey, Leo right behind her. "Mikey! Keep-Away! Keep-Away!"

Mikey's eyes widened, and he instantly threw the cube at Leo, who caught it. "Not to _me_!" Leo protested, instantly running in the other direction as Karai turned her sights back to him. "Raph!"

Leo's immediate younger brother turned just when he threw the cube at him. Raph caught it. Raph could see Karai coming after him. However, Leo caught up to her, stalling her, and Raph quickly turned to Donnie, who was fighting several Vehicons and looking like he was talking to someone.

"Donnie!"

Donnie knocked out another drone with his staff. "_What_?" he shouted.

Raph threw the cube. Donnie reached out to catch it. He did. But something caught him as well.

Bradford and Xever, otherwise known as Dogpound and Fishface, jumped through the portal, which closed behind them. Almost as soon as their paws or metal feet hit the familiar ground of the New York City waterfront, an explosion reverberated through the air.

The two mutants saw nothing, but a bunch of things happened within seconds before they suddenly lost consciousness

Bulkhead had expected the missile. And all he had to do was move quickly to avoid it. Of all the times that his big, fat chassis could've decided to move fast enough to avoid injury, it had to be at that time.

The large Wrecker moved aside, the missile so close he could feel its heat. He watched as the missile hit one of the assimilated ones. The purple one. Donatello. Just at that right moment, when Donatello had stretched out his arm, and caught the cube in his servo, the missile caught him, right in the shoulder.

The cube was instantly dropped, and there was a flash. Bulkhead nearly fell back due to the shockwave, but he was determined to keep his pedes. Gritting his denta, shutting his optics, Bulkhead fought past the enormous headache.

Starscream was already on his pedes, and looked in horror at the scene. Not at the groaning youngling, but at the charred Assimilator.

Metalhead didn't quite remember retaining realization and sentience. Not many do. He remembered flashes, mainly of helping his creator in his lab. But Metalhead did remember sort of… waking up into this world, with sudden full knowledge of who he was, who cared for him, who he held familial bonds to, and why he was there. Some people have that moment, a sort of waking point, the earliest memory, where it seems as though you've only woken up from a long sleep, but you know who your family is, who your friends are, and what you are going to do.

Memory is weird.

Metalhead remembered the mission April had set him. He remembered the Kraang, the mutagen. The mutagen had oozed into his circuitry, into his power unit. Then Leonardo had dropped the cube, and BOOM. Waking up.

And then Donnie came. Metalhead had been so happy, for there had been a very lost feeling in his spark, a dejected want, and that feeling was gone as soon as his creator was there.

Metalhead had been only mildly surprised that his creator was a robot, but he had quickly analyzed and accepted the situation. There seemed to be some sort of bond that connected him to his creator, which allowed him to access a few of his thoughts and memories, so stuff was reasonably explained.

Instinctively, Metalhead had known where he was supposed to be. The small robot had climbed to his creator's back, transformed into himself, and latched himself into a space between his creator's wings, leaving a very small (at least to his creator), NYC manhole cover shell on his back. Again, unexpected, but accepted.

Now, Metalhead was once again unlatching himself from his creator's back struts (he had done so once before, to show his creator's blue brother that he was there).

The purple bot was on his knees, crying out in pain. Metalhead could feel the feeling of shock, pain, and even confusion as his creator cried out. The little turtle bot beeped his concern, and was about to climb onto his creator's left shoulder, but realized that right there was the source of the pain.

"Donnie!" The red brother, also a robot, like Leo and the creator, ran over, concern and fear in his optics, his vocals, his body language.

Metalhead climbed onto his creator's right shoulder as Raph knelt next to him. The red brother was staring at Donatello's left shoulder with wide optics for a moment, before hesitantly touching it.

"_Don't_! Don't do that!" the purple turtle-turned-bot shouted, his vocals practically a scream.

"What _do_ I do?" Raphael demanded, panic mixed with a very frustrated exasperation.

It was very bad. The creator's shoulder had a charred hole in it, sparking with wires. The arm was just short of falling off. And his left wing was charred and heavily indented.

As soon as the missile had hit his shoulder, Donnie only knew pain. His processor was flashing warnings, he could practically hear the alarms. The missile had spun him around, and he'd landed on his shoulder of all places.

Some semblance of sense and dignity managed its way into Donnie's screaming, pain blurred mind, and he'd somehow made it to his knees. Then, nothing else really registered. He was aware of some gunfire, a bit of fighting, but everything seemed blurred, the loudest sound in his ears only being his rapid and deep breaths, punctuated by what sounded like vocalizations of pain, which he soon realized were his own.

"Donnie!"

Raph. A familiar voice among all this confusing chaos, and this brought Donnie out of his pain filled confusion, but not out of his pain. He was aware of Metalhead hanging off his right shoulder, and this gave him some comfort, as well as Raph suddenly kneeling next to him, staring at his arm. The comfort of the latter, however, was quickly dashed as Raph touched his shoulder.

"_Don't_!" Donnie screamed. "Don't do that!"

Raph pulled back both hands, glaring in his worried, frustrated way. "What _do_ I do?" he demanded.

Donnie gasped, grabbing his staff, quickly smacking an armed Vehicon on the helm. Another vehicon he quickly swept off its feet, and stabbed his nagnita blade into its shoulder. Why the shoulder? He didn't know, he didn't care, he just didn't want himself or Raph hurt anymore giving the current situation.

Megatron had been quick to come to his pedes after the shockwave. Then, a young cry reached his audial receptors, and he looked up.

He had been aware of all four of the young assimilated ones, the other three showing the same peculiar yet impressive skill as the blue one. The red one was an impressive brawler, and Megatron wondered how he would have fared if he had been a Pit fighter. The orange one showed a very strange enthusiasm and youthfulness that Megatron had almost forgotten existed. And the purple one. He had an oddness about him that separated him from the others, besides the auburn optics and the wings, and he fact he was the tallest out of the four. He was simpler, showing not the forcefulness of the red one, nor the agility and speed of the orange one, nor the flair of the blue one.

And a staff. Odd choice (Megatron wasn't going to wonder over the weapons of the orange one). But the young purple mech was purposeful, he analyzed his fight, and reacted accordingly.

And it was this purple mech that was crying out in pain. Most of the fighting was momentarily halted by the shockwave, and Megatron used this time to watch. The youngling cried out, and quickly moved to his knees. He stayed leaned over in this position for a few seconds, before the red mech ran over, showing a sentimentality that Megatron knew would get even this worthy brawler a grave in the Gladiatorial Pits of Kaon.

The purple mech shouted at the red mech, and Megatron noticed a small bot on the purple mech's shoulder. A symbiot perhaps. But how would an assimilated one gain access and bond to a symbiot? Yes, this assimilated youngling human certainly was interesting.

Megatron raised an impressed optic ridge as the purple bot took out two Vehicons on his knees, stabbing a blade from his staff into the shoulder of the second Vehicon. By this time, the two other assimilated ones had run over. There was an odd unity between the four, suggesting, perhaps, a familial bond.

Optimus Prime was now there, on one knee beside the younglings. The Decepticons, having noticed that their leader was making no movement of attack, fell back a little, much to the surprise and wariness of the other Autobots, who backed away themselves, casting glances at the group around the injured mech.

"Ratchet," said Prime. "Activate a groundbridge. And prepare the medbay." **A/N HardyGal: I'm not sure what the medical area is called, mainly due to the fact that it's still in the main room of the base.**

"Lord Megatron." Megatron looked sharply at a very nervous Starscream. "I'm afraid the Assimilator… Well…"

Megatron caught the femme, Karai, out of the corner of his optic, and watched as she bent down to pick up a badly charred relic.

Leo was trying to keep it cool. That was his job, after all, to make sure that he could keep his team from panicking. And if they did panic, it was his job to be the levelheaded one. But this was something different.

It shouldn't have been. They had been hurt bad before, by the Shredder, but that was a very… unified thing. They all shared a reaction of dejection and hurt and, yes, nightmares. Right now, there was only Donnie, and there was a mixed set of reactions. Donnie's pain and forced down shock, Mikey's slightly panicky worry and encouragement, Raph's silent conflict of want-to-comfort, want-to-panic, want-to-help, and Leo…

"Donnie," Leo said, after he got over the shock of the charred hole in his brother's shoulder (thank goodness for their new robot bodies, Leo thought). "Just stay calm. We'll fix this."

Donnie nodded, his hand gripping his staff, which was stabbed into a Vehicon's shoulder. He whimpered a little. "Yeah, yeah ok."

"You'll be alright, Donnie," said Mikey. "You gotta be."

"Great, Mike," Donnie gasped. "Adding pressure to my getting better." Well, he was getting back his irritated sarcasm, that was a good sign. Metalhead, whom Leo had almost forgotten about, beeped an encouragement.

"Hey, is that Metalhead?" Mikey said suddenly.

Leo looked up in shock as Optimus Prime suddenly knelt next to him. There was a weird look in the tall robot's metal face. Leo sometimes saw that look on Master Splinter, mainly when he looked at his shrine to Teng Shen and Miwa. Regret and sadness.

"Do not worry," the red and blue bot said. "I will do everything in my power to make sure you are repaired, and all four of you are returned to your original forms. This is not your war."

_'Actually,' _Leo thought, as Optimus Prime stood up and sent a message to Ratchet. _'As soon as Karai got pulled into this, I think this became our war automatically.'_

Speaking of… Leo caught Karai sneaking up out of the corner of his eye. She was bending to pick up a very charred cube. Leo was quickly in front of her, one foot on the cube, one of his katanas stabbed into the ground in front of her hand. Karai looked up at him, golden eyes flashing with annoyance and anger.

Leo glared right back. "Not this time, Karai," he said in a low voice. The groundbridge, the green portal, powered up.

Karai's metal mouth mask disappeared, sliding back. There was the familiar amused smirk. She backflipped away, and went to stand alongside the Decepticons.

Donnie was already limping through the groundbridge, with the assistance of Raph and Mikey. The Autobots, Smokescreen, Wheeljack, Arcee and Bulkhead, also went through the groundbridge, their weapons still on hand as they glanced at the Decepticons suspiciously. Bumblebee waited back with Optimus and Leo, the two smaller bots hovering behind the leader of the Autobots.

Optimus Prime was looking stonily at Megatron, who simply smirked just a little. "Till we meet again, Optimus."

Optimus didn't reply, just slowly turned and went through the groundbridge. Leo and Bumblebee followed, the latter aiming a low, angry buzz at the Decepticon that Leo interpreted as, _*You can't ruin enough lives, can you?*_

Just before Leo actually entered the portal, Megatron said, "Give my wish of a speedy recovery to your brother, little one." Leo grit his teeth and clenched his fists, before entering the portal.

**A/N HardyGal: Ha ha! Done! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Fishface and Dogpound. But I don't know if I'll put them in the next chapter. So some ideas would be nice, it might fuel my inspiration tank too, instead of me waiting for it to fill by itself for three months.**

**Glad you guys enjoyed baby Metalhead. He's really sweet. I find myself wishing I had set this fic in the second season of TMNT, but that would've raised too many complications. No Metalhead for one… That is, if you want Casey. But I already have so many characters that I don't know how I would've inducted Casey into this, though he is a cool character. Same goes for Tiger Claw. Also, I didn't want to deal with the complications of Splinter and Leo knowing the truth about Karai. Double also… I started writing this thing during the season two hiatus, the time Slash and Destroy was the last episode for awhile. So I had nothing on Casey, hardly anything on the truth of Karai, and hardly anything on Rahzar as well.**

**Seriously though, the more new episodes come out, the harder it is to write this. Have you guys seen the finale? Do not get me started…**


End file.
